♪ [ music ] ♪ ♪ >> the meeting is called to order at 211 p.m. on behalf of the sheriff department oversight board we like to thank sfgtv to broadcast and moderate the meetingism you may view the broadcast on

cable channel 26. please stand to recite the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> would you please call the roll? [roll call] we have a quorum. would you please call the first agenda item? >> line item 1, general public comment. the public is welcome to address the board that do not appear on the agenda.

comments are opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available for members of the public who are present in person by approaching the podium, or those joining remotely by calling the number shown across your screen, 415-655-0001 and entering access code 25973005252. when public comment is announced for the line item or general comment, follow the prompts will be added to the queue. when you hear the moderator say good afternoon caller, you have two minutes, this is your opportunity to comment. you have two minutes for your comments. once your 2 minutes ended you will be moved out of the queue and back into listening unless you decide to disconnect. members of the public may stay on the meeting and listen for another line item to be called and pressing star 3 to be added to the queue.

>> good afternoon. september 1, it is great. starts with a the sheriff--most people know me here from the board of supervisors. i've been speaking a lot. i think it is necessary. the second time i address you guys. i don't know if you remember me with my french accent. my name is jerry. i came to tell you that the sheriff has a specific role to play to protect the government's officials. the problem is, you have to make sure the government is [indiscernible] 1

minute 6, it goes very fast. no matter what, because it is plain to see there is a problem here. we have division. it isn't going to work. the goal-the reason for being-everything is happiness. you can't achieve your happiness, your reason for being without beauty, that is everything that goes against such as ugliness. it isn't going to make you happy. nobody. [indiscernible] is not serving the people. one thing, nobody wants war. nobody. do you? how come the government in san francisco doesn't say anything to at least try to have peace? for example [indiscernible] second thing, last thing, i told the mayor, mayor i told you twice, in order to try to solve the problem you push to

promote all the city the concept of responsibility and critical thinking. how come we don't [indiscernible] how come? please, pay attention, sheriff. [indiscernible] we see what happens with the supervisors. keep speaking for everybodys happiness. have a great day. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we have one caller on the line. good afternoon caller, you have two minutes. >> hello. my name is michael

petrelis. i spell my surname so there are accurate minutes on this meeting. i filed a complaint in april with the sheriff department against officer andrew martinez, because i believe he had harassed me before the meeting started and he chilled my first amendment rights. i video taped his interaction with me, this lieutenant martinez. i filed a written complaint with internal affairs at the sheriff's department and then after about four weeks of never hearing from anyone at the department to ask me any questions about my complaint, i received an e-mail from deputy kevin mcconnell telling me that they have conducted an

internal investigation, again, without asking me a single question, and they absolved their colleague of any wrong-doing. i mention this because it is one more reason why we need this commission to get its act together. hire the inspector general. start investigating citizen complaints. we have waited years an unconscionable number of years for this commission to address the abuses of the sheriff and the deputy. we cannot wait much longer for you guys to hire someone and get that person up and running as the inspector general. basically, what we will eventinally need in san francisco is a law enforcement commission, instead of one commission for police department and one for

sheriff department, we need a single law enforcement commission. thank you for listening. >> thank you caller. >> no other callers. calling line item 2. adoption of minutes, action item. review and aprov the minutes from sheriff department oversight board regular meeting held july 7, 2023 and special meeting held july 27, 2023. >> i move to approve. >> second. >> for members of the public who like to comment for line item 2, if you are present please line up at the podium. those remotely call

the general number and use the access code appearing on the screen and follow prompts to be added to the queue. we have one caller on the line. good afternoon caller, you have two minutes. >> hello. this is michael petrelis again, and i want to address the draft meeting minutes from thursday july 27. i see here that there was no general public comment and then you went into closed

session, and again there was no public comment about go nothing into closed session. i'm very concerned about the lack of public engagement and public comment about this meeting. and then, you went into closed session and it says here, discussion in closed session will not be disclosed. this terrible lack of transparency has to be addressed. speaking as a person frustrated and trying to get some investigation, some independent investigation at the sheriff's department, to see that your commission met in july behind closed doors. this was about the inspector general and there is no public that was there, no public

comment recorded, and what was discussed will not be disclosed. boy, this is a reason why so many of us are distrustful of any government oversight of law enforcement, because we just do not see transparency and it is crucial that there be transparency about what you are doing on this commission in closed session, because we have no idea when we will get the inspector general. please, tell us what happened at that meeting on july 27. thank you. >> thank you caller. there are no other callers and no other public comment. calling line item 3, nomination and election of officer--wait, sorry, we didn't vote.

on the motion to adopt the minutes- [roll call] the motion passes. the minutes from the regular meet ing held july 7 and regular meeting and special meeting held july 27 are adopted. now calling line item 3. nomination and election of officer. discussion and action item. nomination and election of officers to serve the sheriff's department oversight board from october 2023 through september 2024. pursuant to sheriff's

department oversight board rules of order rule 1.3. >> nominations for the office of president? >> i nominate julie soo. >> second. >> are there any other nominations? do we take public comment before voting, dan? for each office separately? >> for members of the public who like to comment for line item 3 on the office of the president, if you are present please line up at the podium, otherwise, those watching remotely call the general number and use the access code appearing on your screen and follow the prompts to be added to

the queue. there are appears to be no callers. we will take the vote for line item 3, office of the president. afuhaamango is aye. member brookter is aye. vice president carrion is aye. nguyen is aye. member palmer is not here yet. member soois aye. president wechter is no. by majority vote, member soo has been elected president for the next term commencing october 7, 2023. congratulations. >> congratulations. >> open the floor for nominations of vice president. >> i like to nominate vice president carrion. >> second that.

>> any other nominations for the office of vice president? hearing none-- >> for members of the public who like to comment on line item 3 for the office of vice president, if you are present line up at the podium, otherwise those remotely call the number on the screen and follow the prompts to be added to the queue. there is no callers. we will now take the vote for line item 3, office of the vice president. member afuhaamango, aye. member brookter, aye. vice president carrion, aye. member nguyen, aye. member soo, aye.

president weckter, no. by majority vote, member vice president carrion has been reelected to the office of vice president. your term recommences october 7, 2023. congratulations vice president carrion. >> thank you. >> calling line item 4, recruitment and inspector general discussion and possible action item. dhr will appear to give a update on the ig recruitment. >> good afternoon members, president weckter, vice president carrion. department of human resources sent out the questionnaires to qualified candidates and received the responses thatnded the 25. the responses have been forwarded to the board

and i believe we'll discuss that further in closed session later in this meeting. >> thank you. received. >> can we ask you in this session to put on the record how many applications were received and how many we have to consider? >> not in open session, no. >> okay. >> great. >> for members of the public who like to comment for line item 4, if you are present line up at the podium otherwise call the general number and use the access code on the screen and follow prompts to be added to the queue. one caller online. good afternoon caller, you have two minutes.

>> hello. this is michael petrelis again and i'm greatly disappointed that there is not a substantive discussion taking place right now before you go into closed session about hiring the inspector general. the fact that we can't learn how many have applied for the job or how many have submitted answers to the questionnaires is really harming the public trust in what you are doing, or what i should say, what you are not doing, and that is not giving us transparency. it is really not just the lack of transparency, it is

the extreme lack of urgency. we are in september of 2023 and this commission is still dragging its feet on getting us an inspector general. i need to repeat that at some point san francisco needs to merge the police commission with the oversight body of the sheriff's department and let's also look at oversight regarding the district attorney's office. we need a comprehensive single law enforcement commission where we the people go to a body with power and voice our complaints, where we list our complaints against the various law enforcement agencies at the local level in san francisco and how

crime is not coming down and the trust in law enforcement is also declining. please tell us what the heck is going on with the inspector general's search. thank you. >> thank you caller. >> i like to mention that the commission and hr, dhr is required to follow several different employment laws, which protect the personal information of some of these inspectors, potential inspector generals and applicant, and we have been abiding by that and therefore we use the closed session to insure that information that should not is illegal for us disclose is not disclosed. >> and just to add further context to that, we have been since beginning of this year as we were going

through this process, dhr, been transparent about the timeline it takes for the interview process and just gathering information. we are going by standard timeline. >> no other public comment. calling line item 5, public comment on closed session. public comment on all matters pertaining to item 6, below, closed session. for members of the public who like to comment pertaining to line item 6, closed session, if you are present please line up at the podium, otherwise call the general number and use the access code on the screen and follow the prompts to be added to the queue. good afternoon caller, you have two minutes.

>> because you all set a calendar for yourselves this year that you are following that calendar. it is unacceptable that we the people are still waiting for not just transparency, but urgency! where is your sense of urgency on getting more public engagement at your meetings and also the urgency that is needed regarding hiring this inspector general? how much longer must we wait? it is now the 9th month of this year and we have no idea even what the number of

applicants is. you all are hiding behind the bureaucratees of personnel laws. i do not believe that you're going to violate those laws if you tell us three or 30 people applied for this position. really, the lack of transparency here is harming community accountability and law enforcement and now you are about to go into closed session about this and we are going to have to wait who knows how long you will be in closed session. we have to wait until you come out of closed session to make public comment on the other items on your agenda. you really should have put this item for the closed session at the very end so that we could hear the report that follows this item

and also be allowed to make general public comment on that. so, please show some urgency here. thank you. >> thank you caller. >> if it were up to me we would disclose the number about the number of candidates, but i can't compel dhr to provide that information. we have to abide by the laws as interpreted by our deputy city attorney, so my personal feelings do not trump the rules they are following. >> there are no other callers. line item 6, closed session on public employee appointment hiring sf admin code 67.10b discussion and possible action. inspector general, possession established by sf charter section

4.137 to head the office of the inspector general. at this time we ask members of the public to vacate the chambers so we can have our >> calling line item 7, vote to disclose discussion on closed session. action item. vote to elect whether to disclose any or all discussion on item 6, closed session, san francisco administrative code section 67.12a. >> can you please read off the motion of commissioner soo?

i see, okay. so we don't have to- >> we are not disclosing in closed session, accept that the board came to a consensus as to the interpretation as to law enforcement agency under the charter. and that is-- >> that is law enforcement agencies consist of police agencies and sheriff departments. >> just a note for the public edification, we are continuing ongoing recruitment process so we will be conducting that further next month. >> is there a motion not to disclose closed session? >> so move. >> second? >> second.

>> alright. members of the public who like to comment on line item 7, if present line up at the podium or otherwise call the general number and use the access code on the screen and follow the prompts. >> good afternoon. i have a quick question. has there been consideration setting up maybe a committee on the hiring of the inspector general so it continue to go on-because you all meet once a month. maybe the committee could meet every two weeks in order to speed the process. i heard another gentleman call in and i know we want to get this resolved so we can start moving ahead, so that was my question. thank you. >> we do have a process in which commissioner soovoted to be our president starting october, she's the

liaison directly working--weekly with dhr to make sure that we are on track of the timeline and that the appropriate information is being sent to commissioners. the commissioners to avoid--make sure we do everything correctly, we don't discuss things outside, only our amazing clerk here will send the information to us so we have a opportunity to review everything and have a more thoughtful engaging conversation here. >> just to add, we did have community meetings. unfortunately a number had to be canceled for lack of quorum but we got feedback from the public. that also came to inform us what kind of questions we wanted to ask our potential candidates, how we crafted the job announcement to begin with, and had closed sessions during the regular meeting to get

updates and have a discussion with the department of human resources and as well as our city attorney and then we had additional separate closed sessions on the recruitment as the inspector general specifically. >> we greatly appreciate you coming here and being engaged in this process and welcome you back. >> good to see you again. >> yes. i recognize her. >> there is no other public comment. we'll take the roll for the motion. member afuhaamango, aye. member brookter, aye. vice president carrion, aye. member nguyen, aye. member palmer, aye. member soo, aye. president wechter, aye. the motion passes.

calling line item 8, presentation by the department of police accountability dpa. information item. submission of 2021 and 2022 yearly statistics regarding complaints against sfso received or handled by the dpa including:- anonymized statistical data that includes the total number of complaints dpa received from the public and the sfso - the types of allegations - the number of dpa's open sfso investigations - the number of complaints returned to the sfso for investigations - dpa's recommendations in all the cases it closed that year - and demographic information such as the age, gender, ethnicity or occupation of all complainants and investigated uniformed sfso members. >> good evening. >> thank you. good afternoon board

members. let me apologize saying between you and a long three day weekday. my name is marshal kind for the benefit of the public who may not have tuned in into past meetings, i am a chief of staff for the department of police accountability and our role currently is to provide civilian oversight for issues of sheriff misconduct while this board builds the new department. our congratulations to president elect soo and vice president carrion and congratulations to the board members appointed this year, board member palmer, board member afuhaamango and vice president carrion. look forward work wg all you as we continue to try to build this new department with you to support this board as well as hopefully realize your vision very very soon. i'm here to present on behalf of the dpa. little bit about our work. we are always pleased

to be able to present the work that we have been doing for the past nearly 4 years now. as you will see, we started with ad hoc requests back around 2018, 2019 that developed into agreements with the sheriff's office and we now have a working agreement that defines the areas in which we have jurisdiction to investigate. we included in appendix that basically lays out those areas that we have jurisdiction over investigating. as you all know, we started without any commitment of resources or funding, so everything was built on borrowed resources, but as you will see in the presentation, over the past 3 years we have really ramped up and built in particularly accelerated over the past year our capacity for taking on more work and more investigations. our output. our reporting and our

data capabilities. so, without further ado, any there are any particular questions i'll present a overview of our investigative work over the past two years. as requested, we have prepared data for open and closed case statistics, complainant demographics and break 37 down of allegation types. the 2021 data we included to compare on open and closed cases in 2021, we did not start using the current case management system, which was built around 2018 until mid-year to later part of 2021, so a lot of this data was added afterwards. the case management system was also built specifically for sfpd cases around the sfpd processes, terminology and definitions, so it wasn't something that was a automatic fit

for sheriff cases, but we built processes to make the case management system work because it is better to have all this data automated then not in a automated system. that decision was made in the middle of 2021. what we ended up with however when we looked at the 2021-2022 data was some of the terminology and classifications used entering data in 2021 was slightly different then 2022. for example, classifying referrals, which is what we call cases that we receive or report from the public or the sheriff office about a misconduct case that we ultimately determine that the dpa does not have jurisdiction over under the letter of agreement, and we end up referring the case back to the sheriff department internal affairs unit for investigation. that can sometimes occur on its face when we look at the complaint itself and clearly not within our

letter of agreement, but sometimes that takes a number of investigative steps to make that determination. as you are aware, our letter of agreement gives jurisdiction over use of force with injury, use of force with weapon, and those are not readily clear in the complaints. we may have to go back to get medical records, conduct interviews and look at surveillance video to see if there is a injury or whether a weapon was used and sometimes that is a considerable investment of investigative resources before we make the referral. there is a lingering question at what point do we consider that a referral or is that a case we investigated and closed. what we did to the last meeting to this one is data reconciliation to make sure we capture everything using the same terminology nomenclature and classifications so we have a better apple to

apple comparison of data for all of you. this slide represents a very very broad overview of some of our 2022 statistics. as we continue to work with this board, we hope that you will share with us what kind of data is important to this board so we can refine our data capabilities, capture and reporting of statistics. this is a very broad overview that has different ways of calculated sustained rates. we can look from the perspective of case sustained rates which is 42 percent, 5 audited 12 cases we investigated and closed in 2022 resulted in sustained allegation. you can look at it deputy sustained rate, which is a number of deputies we investigated on closed cases in 2022 and that was 99 deputies.

we sustained or make findings to sustain 11 deputies there. the allegation sustain rate is another way of computing it, which is out of hundred allegations investigated and closed, there were 20 sustained allegations. we are not ascribing any particular weight to the calculations, these are just numbers. ultimately we like you're feedback what is the most valuable data and way to present it for this board. we included also something that is increasing year over year, which is the amount of time our investigators have to go over a video footage. many investigative arenas with advancement in technology and how cameras are, [indiscernible] that is also growing as the sheriff department enhances and augments surveillance system as

well as deploy more and more body worn camera there will be more and more camera footage and as you can see, 416 hours dedicated in 2022 represents about 20percent of full time investigator's work here. i also want to make a note and provide a little more context to this data. obviously numbers don't tell the full story as to the type of investigations that we have been working over the past few years. because the investigations only involve serious cases under the letter of agreement there is a high concentration of very serious and complex investigations and all them expand considerably from the initial complaints. in the sheriff setter,

often times a single call for help will result in a entire platoon of sheriff deputies responding to a scene. in sfpd you may get smaller cases where you have a discourteous officer in a traffic stop or delayed response to a low priority call for service. with the sheriff investigations, these cases grow considerably because every time there are as many deputies that respond to a scene, adds a lot of complication, body worn camera footage gets obscured when a number of bodies in close contact start making contact and not providing as much clarity as a body worn camera would provide from further away. >> i have a question. >> yeah. >> what is the one investigation that--was there one investigation that wasn't about deputies?

>> all the investigations are about deputies because the letter of agreement only allows to investigate sworn members so we don't have any investigations on non sworn members. >> why is there hundred investigations allegation investigations and 99 deputies investigated? are you talking the number of counts of allegations? >> counts of allegations. there are two separate data points. >> thank you. >> what is sustained mean? >> great question. for the purposes of this report, sustained means that that is our investigative finding. that is not the final determination. the final determination of a sustained finding is defined under penal code 832.8 which is after all the appellate remedies or appeals processes have been finalized. that is something that we find very challenging to compute because we don't have direct access to the sheriff's appeals data and often times the

appeals can actually pend for years. we actually without disclosing particular details have been involved in arbitrations from incidences 5 years ago so it is a slow process and often times it is hard to correlate the years findings with the ultimate determination as defined by the penal code. there is going to be a lag between what our determinations are in the investigations, what we send to the under-sheriff who makes the initial determination whether she concurs or disagrees after the investigation and the case summary report. i would say that since the time i have been there and in reviewing past investigations before my time, we have an extremely high concurrence rate with the under-sheriff in terms of sustained findings. that is promising and also indicative of i

think a very complete investigation. >> concurrent meaning like what you are finding they are also finding on their end? >> yes. after we make our investigative determinations, we issue 1 to 5 findings consistent with the way the sheriff issues their findings. there is an appendix in the back that provides definitions from the sustained, not sustained, exonerated and so forth. that report and that investigation and all the investigative materials including all our interviews and everything that we took into consideration is sent over to the under-sheriff first. the under-sheriff reviews everything and makes a determination, does she concur with our findings or disagrew with them and that is where the under-sheriff arrived at the same conclusion. >> okay. just since you pointed

out that some of these cases could have started from 5 years ago, i think it is helpful to kind of parse out the-what cases were started in 2022 and maybe years past as ongoing. >> definitely. we will probably have to consult with sheriff legal and city attorney office how we might be able to share data related to specific cases that are--that have the confidentiality afforded to it under 842.7, but what we can figure out is how much we can anonmize it and if the board wishes to have more details when -whether we can go into closed session to share the information or details. >> thank you. >> this next slide is

simply a graphical representation of the cases opened to give you a idea of from 2021 we had 24 cases, 2022, we opened 21 cases. also gives you the number of cases per quarter. these are relatively small numbers. i would find it difficult to draw any particular conclusions from these sutistics. what i can say, an icdotally this year we have seen a significant increase in our work load. increase in number of complaints, increase in number of investigations we are taking on. in the first half of 2023, we opened 23 cases so in 6 months we opened all most the same number of cases we opened annually for the full year of 2021 and 2022. we are on track potentially opening 40 cases. a lot can be

attributed to the work of this great board and bringing attention to the services we are able to provide for sheriff oversight. similarly, the next slide is a graphical representation of the cases that have been closed in 2022 and all these cases represent in terms of the case closures with few exceptions that where the timeline is told under government code 3034. all of them will be relatively within 270 days which under the letter of agreement we have 9 months to close the investigation. the 2022 cases you expect vast majority of them to have occurred or reported and started that statutory timeline within 9 months to a year. these are some graphical representations of cases closed by quarter. we closed 20 cases in 2021 and 12 cases in

2022. in the first half of 2023 alone, we closed 11 cases, so i think with some additional oversight and some tweaks to our efficiency, we are also increasing our productivity. year to date from january to september now we closed 15 cases this year. the numbers are relatively small, so hard to --this year we added three death investigations so a total of 4 death investigations. [indiscernible] one a tragic vehicle pursuit. this next slide captures the demographic data of the complainant as reported. 67 of the complainants

provided their demographic information. that means nearly 7 out of 10 provided their background information as to race, gender and age. this is completely optional so the data is self-reported from the complainant. 43 percent of our reports were referred-were made to the sheriff office and referred to the dpa, 33 percent referred directly to us or made directly to us by phone. our most frequent demographic for race is 38 percent black or african american, 67 percent male and 33 percent age group 20-30 years of age. i would also note that the complainant isn't always necessarily complaining about themselves. it could be a

complaint about somebody else in the jails. the complainant could be a family member of somebody in the jail or somebody that witnessed something. whatever that is worth, that is part of ourf demographic data for complainants. our case findings. as i indicated, we issue 5 investigative findings consistal with the sheriff policy of exonerated, not sustained, sustained, unfounded or no findings, the definition is in the appendix. we also-one of the determinations that we struggled to classify a bit is referrals. again, when do we call it a referral? it is easy when it is clear on a space that it is referral, but when we investigated months of investigative resources to it, that should be represented as a work-load as well.

i would also point out that these definitions along with definitions for allegations and classifications for the types of wrongful conduct are also all included not only in our appendix but more expansive definition within the sheriff policy itself. one thing that i thought was noteworthy with the highest percentage, 65 percentx onerated, 20 percent sustained, but also we have a very very low not sustained rate of 2 percent. by happenstance it happened that these are out of a hundred allegations so the percentages correlate to cases. because, not sustained is basically an insufficiency of evidence to make a determination one way or the other. i think this is a good reflection that the investigators put immense amount of work

to reaching a well-founded conclusion based on evidence, rather then simply falling back on there, there isn't enough evidence to make a determination. that is the advancement that probably allows us the greatest clarity in resolving these types of challenges is surveillance evidence. this next slide will probably be difficult to see from a distance. hopefully you all have copies of this presentation. it is basically a breakdown of the various allegations that we investigated. the top 3 allegations raised, number one is unnecessary force, 2, retaliatory behavior and 3, the improper use of safety. the top 3 is failure to check on inmate in a

safety cell and inaccurately filling out safety cell observation sheets. i would say that-unnecessary force is a-the top allegation reported, it is also the most challenging that our investigators find to resolve. this next slide represents allegations as classified into the type of improper conduct. again, these definitions are included in the appendix. the top or 20 sustained allegations fell into three categories, misconduct, unacceptable job performance and neglect of duty. >> do we know how many of these happened during over-time period? >> no, we never looked into that and that's a good point. as we all know,

lengthy and extended overtime as a considerable amount of stress but we never tracked misconduct allegations as it relates to whether it is regular shift or overtime, but-- >> the location and the shift. >> we do track locations and able to go back and cross reference shifts so we might be able to see whether or not that data is readily accessible or something that we might want to start tracking in the future. >> because if you can track and present information on the pods of the location of the jail and the shift, we could then determine from the sheriff department records whether deputies were working overtime there. i think it is a good point to gauge. >> in terms of trends, it might be-i don't know if it is hard to get the data, but i think in the last few years there is tremendous overtime so

we would have to go back 5 or 6 years. i think deputy may be able to speak to this. now there is not voluntary overtime, but mandatory so know it isn't uncommon for deputies to have 3, 16 hour days in a week. is that correct? >> i have to go back and look, but we could get drafted--2, 3 times a week and-- [indiscernible] >> but your maximum day is 12 hours so if you get drafted--16. >> [indiscernible] >> but if a regular shift would be like 12 hours, and if you added the drafting it is maximum 16 hours? >> we have 12 hour shifts at county jail 2 and then we have 8 hour shifts at pretty much

everywhere else. we also have 10 hour shifts as well, specifically at different locations, so but the majority is 8 hour shifts. >> i think it would be useful to receive a breakdown of location. specifically as you can provide it. where the incidents originated, the shift, the number of deputies involved. i don't know if you can also provide their rank and if you can categorize the type of situation that was involved. i don't know whether you gather that data. >> we'll be able to from the complaints we classify under a variety of different allegations that fall into misconduct. >> give us a idea where the friction points are and maybe looking over time to see whether the increase-where complaints are increasing and when they are increasing

and what are the situations where you are seeing more complaints now then you did last year. >> okay. we'll go back to the data to see if we have that in our data pool or what we might need to cross reference but we heard the concern of the amount of overtime and perils it places on the deputies and safety of the jail, so we'll delve into this. >> let me ask you, when you reach sustained finding, the agency where i work, we prepare a memo of aggregated and mitigating factor and a mitigating factor might be the fact the deputy had been working overtime three days in a row. do you compile anything like that with reports? >> no. not formally as aggregation or mitigation but in the narrative of our reports we have

indicated agigating and mitigating circumstances. the letter of agreement doesn't allow us to delve into what the discipline should be. that is office of the inspector general may be able to provide more insight into, because the charter also provides that this department will be recommending discipline like we do for sfpd. >> thank you. >> i have another question on sustained cases. do you actually code in particular if the deputy or deputies were following policy protocol or whether they there is a policy violation? this gives insight on what policies we need to consider amending or including? >> yes, all the allegations are tied to a very specific policy i what the violation was. >> and then, since there has been like a

over-haul of the sheriff policies, all the deputies are required to abide by the new policies, correct? >> yes. moving forward, but as we look at the cases that pre-date the policy, we operate under the policy that was at the time out of fairness and notice and due process. >> great. thank you. >> i have a question. the allegation findings slide, just because of--this is helpful to know prioritization of what types of allegations. do you track which officer did that or is that something that is you guys are not privy to? >> every single incident we-the goal of the investigation is determine every act by every officer involved and they are separated out in terms of what they individually did and what they did together. one of the big

challenges in close quarter of group is trying to attribute every grid-lock, every leg strike, hand strike, hold to each deputy. that requires often times a lengthy careful study of all the available video as well as very detailed interviews. >> i guess what i'm getting at,b if there is a any overlap with a particular employee that was like maybe had multiple unnecessary force incidents. >> certainly. the beauty of all this being automated, if you enter a employee name you will see an entire history there. we are aware. these are things that are confidential unless they fall into the categories under senate

bill 1421, 16 and 2. >> i have a question. the under-sheriff is responsible determining what the disciplinary will be? >> for the investigative determination and then those findings are forwarded i believe to-i believe it goes through sheriff legal to under-sheriff the, under-sheriff makes the factual determination, sends to the sheriff for disciplinary review. >> do deputies that get sustained findings, do they still get their pension or does that part of disciplinary action? i don't know if is a appropriate question, but i'm curious. >> that i don't know the answer to. >> i could answer that. >> probably deputy nguyen can answer better then me. i think you have to commit a crime. >> speaking as someone who has a city pension,

you have a contractual right to your pension so i believe unless you are convicted of a crime of moral turpitude and vested in the system you are still entitled to your pension. >> [indiscernible] >> thanks. >> very briefly, this slide is more detail into the type of improper conduct. our last substantive slide. wanted to provide as requested share a update and provide this board with progress report on what the dpa has been doing to support this board and to assist with building infrastructure for-- >> i do have question. i asked for demographic information on members--such as

length of service, age, race. >> that isn't automatically tracked in our system. we would have to go to personnel records to cross reference all that. i'm not sure if we have direct access to the those records. >> isn't that tracked for sfpd officers? >> i believe they are tracked for sfpd officer but we act under the auspice of the letter of agreement and only provided the information that we negotiated in the letter of agreement. >> is this information on your website? >> this information, yes. as i was-i'm going to lay out where to find the statistical information. >> has it been publicly disclosed prior to the presentation to this board? >> yes. in this portion as i'll explain, starting

january this year we started publicly reporting on sheriff investigation data and we have been building upon that, so it has been a iterative process. the case management system wasn't originally built for sheriff cases, so we have to work around some parts of the system to make it work for sheriff work processes as well as fit the terminology and classifications we use for sheriff cases, but as you see on our website, starting january in our monthly reports you see the monthly data of cases coming in and i think some time a little later maybe may, june, the data pool keeps getting expanded. demographic information is on there as well now. >> is that presented separately from complaints about san

francisco police officers? >> it is on the same report. >> you might want to separate them out for the ease of the public to find them because they are separate departments. i looked at the website and didn't find information about the sheriff department investigations and so someone looking for that probably-because it is separate function and separate department, might be useful to separate those out. >> we had a discussion about that. one big issue and we don't have a data analyst dedicated to this work. we don't even have specific investigators that are specifically paid for this work. they bill back to the sda for their investigative hours, but they are not on this particular pay roll. we are struggling for resources in building reports. all of the folks that are currently doing this work, this is

adding additional work to their current work load, which is why it is currently reported and the link is included on the presentation. >> i wanted to thank you for being budget conscious for us, because if we had to build a entire system from scratch. want ed to thank dpa for doing that. couple immediate questions. in terms of the most egregious cases that could be referred to a da office, would you do that or does it go through the under-sheriff first? >> if you are talking about a investigation that yields potential criminal conduct, that is under the letter of agreement requires to refer back to the sheriff criminal investigative unit for investigation. as you are aware, we don't have neither the jurisdiction nor legal authority to conduct a criminal investigation, but of course in the

administrative investigation we may uncover potential criminal misconduct, but there is also very specific rules on fire walling administrative investigations from criminal investigations, because the administrative interviews are protected which are considered compelled and not voluntary statements and if you have commingled of evidence you can potentially compromise a criminal investigation and criminal prosecution. it is currently built such that any time we uncover potential criminal conduct it is referred back to the sheriff department criminal investigative unit and they are then responsible for conducting the criminal investigation and making appropriate referrals to the appropriate prosecuting agency. as you are also aware, not all will necessarily go to san francisco da office, san bruno is san mateo

jurisdiction. >> we are out of time so we need to continue the rest of this line item, and do we have a motion to continue the rest of this line item along with line items 9, 10 and 11 to the next meeting? >> i'll make that motion. >> do we have a second? >> second. >> thank you. all those in favor? >> aye. >> thank you. we will call line item 12 now, general public comment. at this time the public is welcome to address the board up to two minutes on items that did not appear on this afternoon's agenda or within the subject matter jurisdiction of the sheriff department oversight board. during public comment neither personnel or board members can respond to the public but may provide a brief response. general public comment is for items that did not appear on

tonight's agenda. those present, please line up at the podium. those not present call the number and use the access code and follow the prompts to be added to the queue. there appears to be no general comment. >> i just wanted to ask-thank chief of staff for such a thorough job. this is a great presentation, easy to read and think the public is going to benefit from seeing this. >> before i believe and next time i have one more slide, i'll leave you with the literature we produced. we still have to get the funding to produce more of them, but this provides information about the services dpa currently provides for sheriff oversight. >> thank you. >> i do have a question for city attorney. are we the persons that are-are we the body responsible for the

budget that can give them more money or is that through the sheriff because i know they have a mou. >> [indiscernible] >> i see. i see. >> [indiscernible] any city department can work [indiscernible] >> okay. >> but there are some things that are within our budgetary control now? we actually--we had dan make a presentation to make sure we got some kind of funding to continue and dan is sort of our only person who wears 3 our 5 hats as working for us essentially. so, we do have some control over the budget. the other thing too, i think before we leave is, depending what we are called down the road and maybe--are we at future items yet?

>> no, we continued everything else. we need to close the meeting. >> the sheriff-the investigators at dpa doing investigative work on sheriff cases are billing back to fda under work order. >> yeah. and then that leads to down the road since we are public here. figuring what we are called because we are referred to so many different ways in the charter, what the mayor office calls us and the budget, what we call ourselves, so i think we need a solid identity. i tend to follow the money, so however we are getting funding maybe we need to go under a particular acronym being used by the mayor office, but that may require a charter cleanup then because we are at sdob under the chart er and the sheriff no longer call themselves the sheriff department but the sheriff office. >> it is your position

charged back to just as the investigator position? >> i'm fully funded as special project. >> the mou dan signed that runs out this month, what happens when that runs out. >> as of the new fiscal year, i'm not billed against fda. >> okay. you are under the dpa budget? >> yes. >> okay, good. >> motion to adjourn. >> second. >> all those in favor? >> aye. >> any nays? meeting is adjourned at 459. [meeting adjourned]

>> for us, we wish we had our queue and we created spaces that are active. >> food and drinks. there is a lot for a lot of folks and community. for us, it started back in 1966 and it was a diner and where our ancestors gathered to connect. i think coffee and food is the very fabric of our community as well as we take care of each other. to have a pop-up in the tenderloin gives it so much meaning. >> we are always creating impactful meaning of the lives

of the people, and once we create a space and focus on the most marginalized, you really include a space for everyone. coffee is so cultural for many communities and we have coffee of maria inspired by my grandmother from mexico. i have many many memories of sharing coffee with her late at night. so we carry that into everything we do. currently we are on a journey that is going to open up the first brick and mortar in san francisco specifically in the tenderloin. we want to stay true to our ancestors in the tenderloin. so we are getting ready for that and getting ready

for celebrating our anniversary. >> it has been well supported and well talked about in our community. that's why we are pushing it so much because that's how we started. very active community members. they give back to the community. support trends and give back and give a safe space for all. >> we also want to let folks know that if they want to be in a safe space, we have a pay it forward program that allows 20% to get some funds for someone in need can come and get a cup of coffee, pastry and feel welcomed in our community. to be among our community, you are always welcome here. you don't have to buy anything or get anything, just be here and express yourself and be your authentic

self and we will always take care of you. dev mission's goal is aiming to train young adults, youth so we can be a wealth and disparity in underserved communities like where we are today. my name is leo sosa. i'm the founder and executive director for devmission.

we're sitting inside a computer lab where residents come and get support when they give help about how to set up an e-mail account. how to order prescriptions online. create a résumé. we are also now paying attention to provide tech support. we have collaborated with the san francisco mayor's office and the department of technology to implement a broad band network for the residents here so they can have free internet access. we have partnered with community technology networks to provide computer classes to the seniors and the residents. so this computer lab becomes a hub for the community to learn how to use technology, but that's the parents and the adults. we have been able to identify what we call a stem date. the acronym is science technology engineering and math. kids should be exposed no matter what type of background or ethnicity or income status.

that's where we actually create magic. >> something that the kids are really excited about is science and so the way that we execute that is through making slime. and as fun as it is, it's still a chemical reaction and you start to understand that with the materials that you need to make the slime. >> they love adding their little twists to everything. it's just a place for them to experiment and that's really what we want. >> i see. >> really what the excitement behind that is that you're making something. >> logs, legos, sumo box, art, drawing, computers, mine craft, and really it's just awaking opportunity. >> keeping their attention is like one of the biggest challenges that we do have because, you know, they're kids. they always want to be doing something, be helping with something. so we just let them be themselves.

we have our set of rules in place that we have that we want them to follow and live up to. and we also have our set of expectations that we want them to achieve. this is like my first year officially working with kids. and definitely i've had moments where they're not getting something. they don't really understand it and you're trying to just talk to them in a way that they can make it work teaching them in different ways how they can get the light bulb to go off and i've seen it first-hand and it makes me so happy when it does go off because it's like, wow, i helped them understand this concept. >> i love playing games and i love having fun with my friends playing dodge ball and a lot of things that i like. it's really cool. >> they don't give you a lot of cheese to put on there, do they? you've got like a little bit

left. >> we learn programming to make them work. we do computers and programming. at the bottom here, we talk to them and we press these buttons to make it go. and this is to turn it off. and this is to make it control on its own. if you press this twice, it can do any type of tricks. like you can move it like this and it moves. it actually can go like this. >> like, wow, they're just absorbing everything. so it definitely is a wholehearted moment that i love

experiencing. >> the realities right now, 5.3 latinos working in tech and about 6.7 african americans working in tech. and, of course, those tech companies are funders. so i continue to work really hard with them to close that gap and work with the san francisco unified school district so juniors and seniors come to our program, so kids come to our stem hub and be exposed to all those things. it's a big challenge. >> we have a couple of other providers here on site, but we've all just been trying to work together and let the kids move around from each department. some kids are comfortable with their admission, but if they want to jump in with city of dreams or hunter's point, we just try to collaborate to provide the best opportunity in the community. >> devmission has provided

services on westbrook. they teach you how to code. how to build their own mini robot to providing access for the youth to partnerships with adobe and sony and google and twitter. and so devmission has definitely brought access for our families to resources that our residents may or may not have been able to access in the past. >> the san francisco house and development corporation gave us the grant to implement this program. it hasn't been easy, but we have been able to see now some of the success stories of some of those kids that have been able to take the opportunity and continue to grow within their education and eventually become a very successful citizen. >> so the computer lab, they're doing the backpacks. i don't know if you're going to be able to do the class.

you still want to try? . yeah. go for it. >> we have a young man by the name of ivan mello. he came here two and a half years ago to be part of our digital arts music lab. graduating with natural, fruity loops, rhymes. all of our music lyrics are clean. he came as an intern, and now he's running the program. that just tells you, we are only creating opportunities and there's a young man by the name of eduardo ramirez. he tells the barber, what's that flyer? and he says it's a program that teaches you computers and art. and i still remember the day he walked in there with a baseball cap, full of tattoos. nice clean hair cut. i want to learn how to use computers. graduated from the program and

he wanted to work in i.t.. well, eduardo is a dreamer. right. so trying to find him a job in the tech industry was very challenging, but that didn't stop him. through the effort of the office of economic work force and the grant i reached out to a few folks i know. post mates decided to bring him on board regardless of his legal status. he ended his internship at post mates and now is at hudacity. that is the power of what technology does for young people that want to become part of the tech industry. what we've been doing, it's very innovative. helping kids k-12, transitional age youth, families, parents, communities, understand and to be exposed to stem subjects.

imagine if that mission one day can be in every affordable housing community. the opportunities that we would create and that's what i'm trying to do with this >> my name is holly doudiet. h2 firefighter with the san franciscowired. what inspired me to be a firefighter was in 2008 i graduated college . the recession had happened so there weren't any jobs. i was having troublefinding a job. and i was kind of looking around . my dad was a firefighter and i thought what a great career he had. so i asked my dad, never thinking about it at first before. i said dad, what you think about me being afirefighter and he goes yeah, thatwould be a

good idea . i took some classes, i ended up loving it . i grew up and actually and i think it was a good fit for me because it's a physical job and it's enjoyable. you never know whatyou're going to get and it's a team effort . i first realized i was part of the lgbt+ community in sixth grade. i looked on the other side of the classroom and i sawthis girl i thought was really attractive and i thought i want to be her boyfriend . though my experiences in the city growing up in the city and countyof san francisco were always verypositive . i came out in high school . i actually ended up being prom king my senior year in high school and a lot of peoplewere very supportive . myparents were very supportive . they just let me do my thing and my dad knew of a lot of lesbian women in the fire departmentthe time because he was a san francisco firefighter

. for me it's very important to be part of a community and organization and an agency that supports my lgbtq status because if you're not yourself, how can you perform to the best of your abilities? you're always holding back in some way whether it's your personality or your abilities or your overall skills and with agency that supports me being a lesbian i can truly be myself. i can be happy. i can be social with other people. it makes me want to work as a team and we all work better together when we are happier and we can be ourselves. >>. [music]

>> >> the journey of becoming a firefighter is no easy feat, it requires navigating and overcoming challenges to protect and serve the community. established in 1866, the san francisco fire department has evolved and grown to represent the community and meet their needs along the way. the division of training is responsible for training all new members entering the department, as well as develop, and provide corchlhensive fire suppression and emergency medical service instruction to all members of the department. this video provides a glims into the 130 recruit academy class 21 week training program. in preparation to take on one of the most challenging and rewarding professions in the world. to become a firefighter in the san francisco

fire department. >> [whistle] >> i oknow there is going to be a lot of shoveling and it will not come easy. i know it will not be given to me. >> am i going to be able to keep up and do all the physical a pects of what the academy will request of me? >> on the hand you have been given a opportunity you worked so hard to get to, but on the other hand you don't have the job yet and have so much work you have to do to get in the field so it is double edge sword. i need it but this is just the beginning.

[music]

>> we are entrusted with people. our job is (indiscernible) we want people to be firefighters. the chief picked the people. our job is train them. we make sure that we are challenging them, but at the same time supporting them and that is a fine line, because we want to see how these people react. it is imperative for the training academy and training staff to make sure we are getting the best out of these individuals. i always tell them, we will challenge you, but also going to support you. we are not going to trick you into certain things but we want to make sure we make it difficult and make it so that you are performing at your best when somebody is on their worst day. >> the process is grueling, however, the reward at the end is what it's all about. we have 21 weeks to form this group of 51, and to functioning individuals on a working engine

or truck company in the city and the challenge there is that when you walk through the door, you should be able to take care of business right away. when i first got on the job and hit the streets and got my first fire, which is 4th alarm fire which they throw a lot of people in the big building, happened in the first 30 minutes of me stepping in the fire house. >> we hire a vast group of people with different backgrounds and experiences, which is kind of interesting as well, because it makes up our department and we have a kind of hodgepodge of people, but they all get taught the same thing. we have people from-we have a guy in the class whoofs a social worker. we have a person who was a firefighter, multiple firefighters. san francisco does things different then most fire departments but they have upper hand so we try to pair those with some sort of experience with people who don't in study group said. we tell them the first

week get in a study group and that is a group for the rest of the academy so you will be the support group for each other. >> my name is julian martin a recruit in the 130 academy for the san francisco fire department. the fire department what drew me to it to begin is a concept you are always learning. you are always learning something a92. now fire or situation is alike. no med call will be the same, and that aspect is something that is always changing is what drew me to it. when i was 19 i enlisted in the united states army and was in college at the time, so i was enrolled simultaneous in the reserve officer corp training out of leehigh university. i was (indiscernible) and lee high university and completed by bachelors, but commissioned out of lee high university as a officer in the california national guard. when i graduatesed i

immediately went to fort (indiscernible) missouri to complete training for being a chemical officer which is (indiscernible) i think my background in chemical hazmat with the army was beneficial and the department as well. >> high energy,b that is how i categorize julian. high energy and ability. she is very capable. >> she is one of those people pretty much anything she tries she can do well. she is a musician also. she is a artist. >> she is the kind of person that push other people to be the best version of themselves, just because she also wants to be the best version of herself. she is a very dedicated individual, and it was a treat but also a challenge because that is the way she is. very competitive and

ambitious. >> emily-i am a recruit with the san francisco fire department. i remember how do i become a firefighter in a major city? i typed that into google and a lot of things came up. getting certification like firefighter 1, emt, paramedic jz these are things i knew nothing about so a lot of research. for me having lived in california and visited the bay area many times i said to myself, i decided the pentacle for me of being a structure firefighter, being a city firefighter which coming to san francisco. i am originally from new england. i grew up in a traditional town in new hampshire. when can i was a kid i never had fire fighting on my radar. never

something i thought about doing. when i in college i studied environmental conversation. i always appreciated the outdoors and really cared a lot about protecting the outdoors, so for years after college i worked with kids in the outdoor education, so taking kids on backpacking trips, takes kids on hiking trips, and just helping them develop appreciation for the outdoors. it was basically a opportunity to not have a desk job and for years i was chasing that job that didn't involve sitting at a desk and be outside with people which makes sense it leads me to firefighter. next thing i knew i was heading up to alaska to be a firefighter. that was the switch and never looked back. >> emily is a person that very much someone who cares about other people and will

put other people needs before her own. she is extremely caring and thoughtful. i also think she is extremely adventurous as well. i remember when we first met, when we were living in yosemite being in ah of her adventurous side. >> my name is jenna. everybody called johnny for short and i'm a recruit with the 130 academy for san francisco fire department. city girl, born and raised in san francisco. literally my entire schooling has been right here in the city of san francisco, and so that's part of me and part of my identity, and what keeps me so grounded to the city i was raise d in. my brother is a

firefighter and he has been a firefighter many years. he is absolutely-he loves his job and always has tried to bring people along with him. those he loves and that he thinks would be fit for the job. >> i told this lady about this service and about this career path back when she was 22 years old after graduating from usf, i tried to put in her ear, i think you would be incredible at this profession and she said i'll think about it. >> that is always something in my ear, but to be honest, my encounter with the fire department that kind of sparked that interest and the reason as to why i wanted to become a firefighter, because at the age of 15 i lost my mother to gun violence and it was

the fire department when they came to my home, it was the reaction of the firefighters that i felt cold. their reaction to my situation. i didn't feel support. that is just my perspective of the instant it happened, but that is something that stuck with me. i don't want someone like me to go through what i went through because i know how that felt. i took the leap of faith and i said i'm going to change my career entirely, but now i see for myself just within my recruit class that there is a lot of diversity. it was really comforting to me to see that and know that these are the people who are going to be my first family, because we share a special bond. >> she was ready. she was hungry, and she-every drill we did, every practice we

did, all the exercising she was doing, she was hungry for it. i couldn't possibly be more proud of her. >> a real basic building block is just like crawl walk run. our crawling stage is like just putting your gear on. we have our ppe, which is about 20pounds, the packs are 20 pounds. just those two alone you throw on 40 pounds of weight and by the end of the academy we have your ppe on, go on (indiscernible) breathe through the bottle, climb up a ladder, crawl through a window, search fwr a victim, bring the victim through the window and extricate through the window. the progression of the testing ramp up pretty quickly. in the 10 week cycle it seems like a long time, but for the recruit you can ask them i'm telling you it is a rigorous academy and keeps on getting

harder. >> academy starts at 8 o'clock. we do our pt. whatever it may be, whether it is running in a circuit or amazing raise, and are that lasts anywhere from a hour to hour and 30. from there we go to a class room. we learn about the different chapters, whether it is (indiscernible) hose appliances, building construction, whatever it may be. that usually takes us to lunch and from there we get separated into skills groups. >> (indiscernible) how many victims. >> which we have typically about 4 rotations of the different skills we get touches. >> it is still very early in the process. if you

envision each class like a bell curve where most in the middle, if you have a class with really long tails those are harder to train, because you have people at the back end who are really struggling. this class seems to have small tails. i don't see anybody struggling yet. i dont see anybody truly standing out. but again, it is early. we haven't done any testing yet. >> i am learning a lot with fellow class mates. they need me and i need them and the really difficult evolution and training and the first couple days are crucial to understanding like how people react to certain situations because not everybody is the best under pressure. not everybody is the best tying a knot about there are some that are super fast with hose lines. finding everybody strong point and emphasize those and use to our advantage is important in the first couple weeks. >> something that challenged me probably the most and

has been probably the biggest learning curve is really focusing on the ability to let go of something when it doesn't go well in the moment and move to the next thing. that i think has been one of the biggest challenges in this academy, because the realty is you make a lot of mistakes every day. you do a lot of things well too, but you make a lot of mistakes and if you hold on to each one of those mistakes it is just going to snow ball into more mistakes and it will lead to more stress and being hard on yourself. >> i had to learn a lot of different new skill sets. things i wasn't familiar with like chain saws how to hose lines and so getting the technique because a lot of the job is about the technique. it is not about having the brute strength or anything like that, it is using your body

mechanics to your advantage. >> when my body cools down (indiscernible) [music]

>> we have the academy set up it gives everybody the opportunity to practice the skill set they need to. san francisco is its own entity. we pride ourselves on the traditional fire department in the sense we still use brass fittings, wooden latters, surrounded by three sides of water so all risk fire department. you can go downtown busy high-rise, out to the coast for surf rescue. we have a mix of everything and we all have to be well-rounded firefighters and that is our entire job to make sure that we are profeshant. >> as we train our roles will be to evaluate along the way. the role we have is to get them ready for fire house culture. to be a firefighter requires a fair amount of discipline. you have to understand the rules of the game. understand how to behave, how to appear, how to interact with the public and one of my roles is to

make sure the recruits understand that and adhere to the codes of conduct and behavior the department lays out. >> okay, today is monday. the monday after my first big week of testing. two double day testing thursday and friday. we had to do a ems skill, take a written test and 8 different fire suppression manipulatives. we got our report card back today and if you can't tell by the way i'm smiling now, i passed every skill that we had to do. your girl got zero deficiencies, so i am very proud of myself of being able to pass. >> you know, our saying is we dont fail people, they

fail themselves. we give them all the information they need. we allow them extra hours prior to the start of class and stay late after hours, and we hope they take advant nl if they need help. they vocalize when they don't know something and part is ego. if i want to pass the class i need to ask for help. there is no slowing down. once the training is moving it isn't stopping for anybody. you are on the training or off. we don't have time to stop. we want them to pass, but they have to have their heart into it. if they think it will be easy that isn't the way it works. >> i want to speak about what happened on september 22, 2022, which was week 14 i believe. week 14 or 13. there was a big moment for me, because it was the week that i got

injured. i had the ladder not completely fall on me, but it put my body in such a way it basically injured my shoulder. i had a little nerve damage coming from the top of my right shoulder radiating down. from what i remember, the ladder was coming down and a sudden movement it swerveed one way and swerved back and i remember i couldn't feel my right arm. i tried to hold on to the ladder and it just basically just hit me in a certain position, and i fell over, and i remember feeling a combination of so much pain and honesty nothing at all. >> she had a pretty good scare of a injury, and her

determination and just the way she goes about things. she is not very demon struative or outspoken but works hards and puts herinose nose down and just works. [music]

>> so, today is our last day in the academy. i think there is a lot of things going through my mind right now. on one hand, i feel incredibly relieved to be at this point. it has been a long 5 months. it has been great, but it has been really challenging and definitely really tiring, so it feels really relieving to have reached this mileston. >> we graduated friday and just feels really exciting. you know, speaking for myself, i think i'm preoccupied worrying about starting work soon, but i think for my family and my partner, i'm excited for them to be at graduation. this is not just a journey i have been on, but a journey they

have been on as well. especially my partner. she has been immensely supportive of me throughout this process. on the other side of the coin, it is nerve-wracking we go out in the field and do the job. it is mixed emotions for sure. >> super excited. it has been a long long 16 weeks, and at the end i finally get to graduate, get to be a firefighter. i'm looking forward to most is taking our time at treasure island and bring into effect to help people. >> so many things that are going on in my mind at the moment because of the fact today is the last day that we are actually on our training grounds on treasure island. i cant believe i'm actually here and i made it these 5

months. getting in here doing the best i could possibly do, but now it is graduation is just so close. i'm just nervous. i created this family within the 130 academy class where we have gotten to know each other and gotten to do skills together, but now when i go to my probationary home, now i will get to know those people and learn so many more skills and just get all the hands on experience and you know, create that second family. it has been overwhelming. just the amount of support that i have received. my family is my core and is my biggest support system and they have been there and have just expressed unconditional love and support every step of the way.

[music] >> good morning 130. i know this is a exciting day for you, and this is just one of the many milestones in your career. i am really proud of the division of training and i'm proud of you, 130. you took the lead and you worked hard. you worked as a team and that's how we always do it in the san francisco fire department. this is a proud department with a proud history. we fight fires like no other fire department. we are community paramedicine and alternatives to policing. we are firefighter emt, firefighter paramedics, but we are so much more as you are going to find out during your

careers. i do solemnly swear, that i will support and defend, the counsitution of the united states, and the constitution of the state of california, against all enemies foreign and domestic. >> today i graduated from san francisco 130 recruit class, and i became a san francisco firefighter. i feel absolutely amazing. i thought about how i feel graduating, but feeling it is crazy. i'm so so excited to get started. i will be in station 9 in the bayview. industrial part of the city and i'm extremely excited to do everything the truck does.

learn how to raise and lower the aerial. get to all the different ladders and practice them in real life and apply them to situations that we are seen in the academy, but to see them in real life will be a brand new thing. [applause] >> going up to the stage to get my badge, i was thinking about how sweaty my hands were. i was trying not to trip, and but in realty i was just thinking about how special the moment it was, and to be honest, it felt like everything stood still for a second, and it was a special time to reflect on the journey. i feel proud of my class mates making to graduation. i feel a lot of love towards my classmates and lot of respect and admuration towards

the instructors. it feels good to be at this point after 21 weeks of hard work. >> i would say i felt an immense amount of pride for what she accomplished. having been along the ride, before academy, being a part of the journey that lead up to interviews and then academy and getting to this point. i know how much she has overcome and accomplished. so proud. i'm so proud of you. [calling out name] >> to be honest, i am had a ball of emotions just running through me right now. it is like electric energy. to have all the overwhelming support from my family, from my friends, from everybody in the department, and from oakland

department as well is truly just overwhelming and very emotional at the same time. >> hoping e-the whole thing is surreal to me. she pinned the badge on me when she was 15 years old and coming to today and seeing where she is at now, i couldn't possibly be more proud. she has a heart of passion. she has a lot of heart . >> when i saw him up there, it was just overwhelming. i was like, i will not cry, i will not cry. i tried to hold it back, it just couldn't. >> the chief says, who will cry first. >> who will cry first? okay. (indiscernible) >> i'm supposed to be

tough. man-- >> the last time i like to introduce the newest bravest san francisco firefighters, 130! [applause] >> so, i'm now at station 9 on the truck. in the bayview. junk yard dog. the day before graduation was to ask questions what we are supposed to do and probationary firefighter instead of recruit. my first day was november 22. it was i was one of the lucky ones. i had my full weekday. i had 4 days after graduation to get my

mind right, get ready to go to work. our instructors complaint us in the dark so we wouldn't know what to expect so when we got here, it's how we adapt to a situation, not so much-this is what will happen. this is what you need to do. i was kind of freaking out before i really haven't been in a fire station before, and every single member was super welcoming here. i think the most important thing is being yourself. knowing when to contribute and when to kind of sit back and listen, because there is a wealth of knowledge around you everywhere. everywhere. i could talk to any person in the station and learn so much. i think i have been able to hold on to what people have been telling me a lot more here and learn a lot more in a lot less time. >> transitioning from graduation to being a

probationary firefighters coming with a lot of changes. you learn the tower and skills and information and once you get thin field you realize how all those people come together in real time, which has been super cool to see how it all unfolds in the field. i have been super lucky. i got placed at station 17 on engine 17 and i have just been super fortunate to have a really great group of folks to work with, who put in a lot of time and energy to help get me up to speed. >> i say with i first started the academy and was nervous and excited. there is a element of nervousness with being a probationary firefighter because you are trying to keep up and learn as much as you can. i say from the academy till now there is also a lot of confidence building that happened. the first two months what really stuck out to me is just how tight nit the station is and how much people

really care about the work that they do and really pushes me i think to be better at the job. >> apparently i'm a probationary firefighter for the san francisco fire department, so the last 5 months i was in the tower in the academy lead me to here of drilling, testing, requiring all the basic foundation skills to become a firefighter. now i'm actually actively doing it, but more specifically at the current house i'm stationed at, which is station 10, i am also the role of emt because we are on a als unit where there is a paramedic so i'm the paramedic backup providing them whatever they need as their assistant, but when it comes to fires i'm the one with the nozzle to put out the fire. me and my main concern is getting

through probation because i don't have job security at the moment, because you can be let go any time if you are not meeting the expectations of what it is that they require from you. i want to be good at what i'm here to do in the position i'm in now. the call volume i have seen during my watchs are 7 to 10 calls within a day, which is pretty moderate. i'm just waiting for my first fire. [laughter]

>> (indiscernible) step on it and measure at the shoulder. >> we talk about being a model to other agencies, again we hire very diverse group. male and female. as long as you meet the standards and are able to take care of the business of the fire department and public safety and being able to get along with your coworkers and all these stressful environments is key. you are not a individual here. we are made up as a team, so you have to be willing to listen. you have to be willing to learn, and you have to be willing to push yourself all the way to the end and you'll be

successful here in san francisco. >> people ask, you just go to fires and-no, we go to everything. anything and everything 911 is called. it depends on the person and where they are at. we invite everybody to come try if they think they can get here, then by all means, we are a great department. large department. busy department, and we have a lot of things to see while working here. best job in the world to this day. >> we prep them as best we can. all the experiences and instructors and myself, we again our job is to see them-we want to see them be successful. we want to hear good reports. it is like being a parent. i are want to make sure when they leave we want to hear good things and if we don't want also want to check and make sure, what happened? i want to hear from now the probationary firefighter what happened and how we can best support them, because they are not

recruits anymore. they are professional probationary firefighters and just because they left the tower doesn't mean we are done with them. i'm more invested in them now now that they are my brother and sister then a recruit because i could be working with them in the field. i found a career i absolutely hundred percent love. it is very rare that you you can find a profession that you can love that much. i'm a public servant. i never want to forget the roots of what we do. we serve the citizens of san francisco. i'm serving the citizen of san francisco now by training new firefighters. by job is best prepare them what they will be going to into the future. >> in the community whether we are driving around, we are on a call, or shopping, the way that the community looks at us and looks at me is kind of

surreal, because it hasn't fully sunk in. sometimes i have to reflect and say, you made it here. be proud of yourself. be proud of your accomplishments because for me i want to strive and do more and be better. [siren] >> i would say first of all, we dont just employ firefighters, we employ everybody on the ambulance. emt and paramedics. firefighters and ems is a great opportunity. it is really important we have people who look like the community we are serving and that's part of the reason many joined this department to create change from the inside and we have done a lot of that and we will continue to do that. there is a place for you here as a ems, as a paramedic, as a firefighter. you just need to be able to put in the work. this is a big deal

being in public safety in san francisco working for the san francisco fire department. it is a commitment. what better place if you want to serve your community then the san francisco fire department? [music]

[siren] >> happy second annual transgender history month. [applause]. it is an absolutely pleasure to be here with you all.

and welcome this very special moment here in san francisco. i have the great honor to be your mc for this ocean i'm jupiter per asa. an occasion that is personal to me and close to my heart. for some context why that is, back in 2021 i wrote the initial draft proclamation that designating august as transgender history month. i was inspired by the cafeteria riots on an august 9 in 1966. we don't know exactly what day it happened but we do know that it happened in august. i asked myself, why is it that we don't know what day it happened? it is monumental history. why don't we know? >> the sad reality of it is that

this monumental occurrence was so major and unlike anything that had ever occurred before at that scale in the united states , that an effort to eliminate it from records and existence ensued. it persisted. and because of it, watershed moments in the lbgtq+ civil right's movement followed. such as the stonewall riots of 1969. so, the idea transgender history month began to take shape via this train of thought. i thought about black history month and women's history month. now national low recognized months. and the essential education and awareness that they bring to the general masses every year. >> that knowledge is critical in bringing awareness and

understanding of the struggles and history that have taken place to get where we are now. >> when i wrote this procolumnation i had the honor of serving as director of social justice empowerment initiative the transgender district the world's only legally recognized cultural district dedicated to the transgender community. based in the tenderloin neighborhood. grounded and rooted in the 55 to the event that is the cafeteria riot. with the guidance of president of the transgender district, we brought the proclamation to the office of transgender initiatives. without the office transgender initiate evers, in their instrumental advocacy for transgender history month to the mayor's office. we would not be sitting here

today. director powell craigo wherever he is and the office of transgender initiatives serve a huge round of applause for determination to make this happen. in last but not least, transgender history month would not have happened at all without the profound alliship of mayor breed. yes. round of applause. mayor breed has proven time and time again her unwaivering alliship to the transgender communitiful dedication to support,up lift and empower san francisco transgender community. mayor breed has set the bar for any mayor across any city in the united states on what it means to be inclusive and stand with

the transgender community. and in what seemed to be a sign from the universe in our transs mir breed signed transgender history month on august 24, 2021. on what would have been masha p. johnson's 76th birthday. [applause] and just last year, santa clarita county adopted transgender history month. following san francisco's leadership. transgender history should not be understated. transgender history helps us understand the shared struggled that bind us. how we are more alike than we are different. whether or not [inaudible] or trans. now t is imperative to lone in transgender history to understand the reemergence of

extremists in violent antitransgender rhetoric that has taken a hold of national politics the last few years. the a tax were seen against the transgender and gender diverse communities are not new. in fact, hay draw from the detectiveds of the 1970's and 80s that lead to the station of [inaudible] as a mental disorder. i quote, disease. such developments rated systemic hurdles that hindered many transpeople from seek gender affirming health care services and a better quality of life. the consequence manifested of trans people from society. resulting in poverty, isolation, depression, unpreps dented

transphobic violence and sickness. we must learn to guarantee a future defined by liberation. transpeople have contributed a great deal to modern day society. transpeople deserve to know they come from a lineage of thought leaders, pioneers and warriors. our history is a vivid and captivating account of sack fireworks transformation, joy and a journey toward personal liberation. we sit here, with the gift that is the transgender community of san francisco. to have icons and pioneers like mrs. sona persona. ms. bill cooper. chung, aria, connie mahogany. ja neta johnson. powell prego,

tina. nicole >> doctor striker and many, many others seen and unseen paving their way in their own field such as melanie and gender affirming care and kenya in technology and engineering. so now, i welcome a trans icon and someone i admire. for a lands acknowledgment. this individual is cofounder of the transgender district. co-owner of the stud. and the highest elected black transwoman in the country for any democratic chapter. give a warm welcome to part chair of the san francisco democrat irk central committee. connie mahogany. >> thank you, so much, jupiter

for that introduction. one more time for jupiter. [applause] thanks to here we are here tilde have the honor on behalf of old bull doing the land acknowledgment. this land acknowledgment recognizes the city of san francisco resides on unceded ramaytush ohlone land on a village site. we acknowledge the suffering caused by the theft and colonization of the land and grieve the on going harm to ramaytush ohlone cultures and to all the indigenous cult urs of the planet. we honor the ramaytush ohlone the stewards of the lands and wildlife. we recognize the live home of the ramaytush ohlone people the on going existing first people of san francisco and the surrounding bay area. with rich cult urs full of song, dance, language, ceremonies and

tradition. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. honey. and now i would like to introduce the champion of transgender history month. give a warm welcome to mayor london breed. [applause] >> first of all, hi to take a moment to just really appreciate jupiter's comments. and putting thing in perspective to truly celebrate transgender history month in san francisco. it is so grit to be here with all of you including our elected lead e joel engardio a member of the board of supervisors. [applause]. you can wave, joel. he is look at me do i wave what

do i do? >> the first liege fire chief in san francisco history ja jeanine nicholson. connie chew and joaquin torres. let me honor some amazing trail blazers ms. billie cooper in the back. as well as donna persona. and i want to acknowledge the executive director for pride who is joining us today. thank you so suzanne ford for your hard work in making pride really special. [applause]. the new generation of leaders in the trans-community stand on your shoulders. we are grateful to welcome you all here to san francisco upon city hall to celebrate transgender history month in the city and county of san

francisco! [applause] thank you, honey for that great land acknowledgment. and what i love so much in talking about san francisco on such a special occasion is not just that our city is a resilient city because of the community what they represent in terms of the history the transgender movement, which really, truly was at the center of sparking a movement for lbgtq+ community and san francisco as a city of firsts. when you think, people continue to talk about stonewall the first known movements in history that occurred in new york. and we all know in san francisco, that if we don't talk about our history, if we don't put it out there, someone else will try to take credit for had we have done in san francisco. in 1966, what happened here compton's riots is not elevated

and documented and talked about and celebrated the first movements in the lbgtq+ movement not just the transgender and the drag queen move inspect all of the movements combined, this is where it started in san francisco because of this community. >> as i talk about san francisco being a city of first i came from 150th year anniversary celebration of the cable car. it is 150 years first cable car invented the only still in san francisco. and san francisco really is a city of firsts. first cable car. first television invent in the san francisco. we condition. the clap on san francisco invented that. which created this door for technology and opportunity and the which ia pet the guy who invented the clap on. why do we talk about this? because when it happens in san

francisco it takes flight. and here in san francisco we started with not just the first office of transgender initiatives, but it went on along with so many great leaders that were mentioned including honey and others to start a transgender district. to really work together with our transgender advisory committee to put forth initiatives to not just talk about history and the movement but to final low make real investment to push for aggressive change. i'm proud that san francisco continues to push the envelope. continues to be put on the map when it come to transgender rights. and the w this we have done together including the transhome sf and a commitment to end transhomelessness in san francisco has been

transformtive. and along with the challenges that continue to persist around homelessness in this community. the first program around universal basic income for transgender people in san francisco. >> a lot of the work we continue to do in including the first building the first building to have transgender youth here in san francisco. and let mow tell you, the challenge we continue to run into because transgender people as a whole are under attack but our youth more than anything else. so much so this we could not really announce celebrate and disclose the location out of fear what might happen to those young people who will be moving in this space. but the city did not let that stop us from moving forward. we invested resources and help

to support lion martin in terms of the w they are doing the security that they need to ensure this people can get health care and support and resource. without fear of being attacked. well is so much that we are doing in san francisco. jupiter out lined a lot of the great initiatives and would not happen had it not been for this incredible xhounlts. continuing to push the envelope. continuing to advocate. and continuing to make sure that this communities is united in our fight to ensure that the support that is available not just to the lbgtq+ community as a whole but well is a specific focus. on the trans-community for resources, services, based on challenges and disparities that continue to persist. this community represents wholehearted low the resiliency what it means to be a francesca.

when we talk about the phoenix rising from the ashes your strength, courage and everything you continue to do to push the envelope; is why so many others in had country and in this world can truly be courageous they look to san francisco and they truly see that we are a beacon of hope in the transgender community. [applause] thank you all for being here to celebrate transgender history month in san francisco! let's continue to roll up our sleeves. continue to do this incredible work to those who are a part of the community as well as the alli. we will push the inspect in san francisco and maintain our place as a beacon of hope for all transpeople throughout the world. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breechld give mayor breed another round

of applause. thank you. and now i welcome back party chair of the san francisco democratic committee honey mahogany. [applause] thank you, so much an honor to be here amongst community and leaders and here in my home town of san francisco which as the mayor said has been a place of so many firsts for our community. i'm proud to stand here the first transperson to serve as chair of any local democratic per in the country. i'm here proud as one of the founders of the cultural district and someone who live in a city we committed to ending trans homelessness. >> that being said, even here in san francisco we have so much more work to do.

even here in the state of california we still have people who are attacking transpeople rights. and as we see laws passed in other states across the country, so many people are fleeing to sanctuary cities like california and cities like san francisco only to find they couldn't ford to live here fetch are going to be a sanctuary city we have to double down on investments. ensure when people come they are welcomed and stabilized and allowed to continue to prosper and to live that dream of what sanctuary means in san francisco. i think that one of the things we can do most are or best is be as loud and proud as we can be here. we have to demonstrate to the world what transexcellence looks like and have to teach our history. the reason that republicans and people of across the country are attacking our school boards.

education system and public schools. banning book because they than education is the 63 to their success and the way in which they can exploit us as scapegoats. i want to say that who i we saw the rhetoric in the 70s and 80s it does did not start there. we can go back to world war ii when we saw the discrimination pushed upon our community. when we think about the book burnings by the nazi party. one of the first and famous and one you seen pictures of happened at the clinic of doctor magnus. was a jewish gay jewish doctor when republican a gender clinic in germany. years of reswhaefrp it money to bes transgender. and how to help transgender people of all of that research and that knowledge and books was

burned and destroyed. and transpeople went from at this time in germany able to live their live in public being able to get cards to acknowledge they were trans people and allowed wear when than i wore. they went from this to persecuted and the pink triangle on them and burn in the gas chambered. it is very important we remember that history this . we acknowledge that history and teach that history to so we don't repeat it today we are seeing history repeat itself. in places here like san francisco, we have leaders who do the right thing. leaders who are fight to make this say safe space and doing their best to ensure people can come here and seek sanctuary. i challenge us e approximately allis to do more. meet the challenge. as chair of the democratic party i have honor of working along side nancy pelosi in doing stone

bank across our state and the country to make sure we elect people who will fight for our rights not just transrival right to access reproductive health care and abortions this is all linked. please, it is in the enough to attend rallies. not enough to call yourself an alli. do the work, join us in using our privilege in san francisco to create change across the state and the country. you can hit us up at the website and phone bank join us and sister district and other organization in doing this work that will lead lay the path way to us winning in 2024. we need to get that seat and ensure we preserve our democracy. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much issue hone.

now i welcome 2 special people. one of them is brianna mc cree. show is the former director of community engagement for the center of excellence for transgender hang at ucsf. she has lead transgender empowerment and hiv treatment in the tenderloin the last 20 years special this past june she was one of san francisco pride's grand marshall. the second individual is carlo ortega community organizer who served as the development coordinator for you delores foundation. he is the cofound and are facilitator of the first spanish language support group for latin x trans-men. in the san francisco east bay.

the 2 individuals are very, very special. they will both be leading the transgender district as coexecutive directors. let's give a very warm welcome to the new executive sdreshths of the transgender district. [applause] goodness. happy trans-history month! happy trans-history month! thank you to jupiter and honey and especially mayor breed. thank you for being a light for trans-liberation. i was told i have a minute let me speed through this. thank you jupiter for leading the charge and helping create this legislation that will be recognized on the state level.

thank you to the cofounders honey, jell neta and aria and working with suz abstriker to uncover the rich history in san francisco's tenderloin area to elevate the people. through my leadership with carlo, i hope to expand on the legace programs of the district creating more possibility models for the folks in the tenderloin for the future. thank you. [applause] why hello. thank you so much, thank you to mayor breed. to jupiter, to honest and he of course to the speakers who will be here today and honorees and the attendise, our community. so, so honored to be here and humbleed number this position and look forward to building with all of you as we move

forward. i'm carlo, i'm excited work with brianna my colleague at the transgender district. the san francisco as we celebrate this month of joy, contribution, of over coming. heeling. we need this. we need this here and every where. i'm excited for the transgender district. i'm excited for the future focusing on place making. we are excited meet everyone. am and to invite to you our event programming especially in this mont. i want to talk about a few events we are having. first is expectancyive will be tomorrow august third and 4. at the act at 7:30. tickets are available we hope you can all come. we also have a riot party the

famous party acknowledgment of the important history on the 27th of august. it would be 12 o'clock at the gardens here in the district. so. more information on both of the events can be found at the transgender district sf.com event's page. go there for tickets. share with friends we want to expand the reach to make sure folks, our community as access to the programming. and all we are excited the graduation is happening for transgender and queer people of color. many of our participates are here. and it is a 4 month program this start in the april and finishing this month. so we are excited to be celebrating graduation of the new corporate double the size as it was left year. and we want to introduce the

businesses and artists and folks to you. please, come to the graduation on the 23rd of august at conner polk at 5:30. it is my pleasure to introduce our past graduate who is is an horree today. melanie. who is an experience in license elect trolgs in san francisco. give her a grand hand! for lifting update droll he had years ago and making it reality. thank you. >> [laughter] hello issue everyone. transgender history month honors the hardships, struggles and the

obstacles and trail blazer who worked hard. there is still w to be done but seeing all your beautiful face here is a testament that we are going to be resilient and over come anything. i want to take a moment to thank my mentors aria, honey mahogany. nikki, just to name a few. the people inspired and guided me throughout my years. thank you to the transgender district. entrepreneurship program for helping make the dream come true. with how our political climate is and how it is trying to strip transgender people of our rights, it is programs like these that are vital to make sure that our community not only survives but thrives.

building wealth in our community to ensure a brighter future for us all. and mayor breed announces second rounds of grant opportunity for store fronts and small businesses in san francisco recently. and i'm too late for the ground but i hope i get grand opportunity up in here. san francisco hook a sister up. >> on a serious note, i'm a fill pina-american native and transgender woman. born and raised in hayward, california. of my mother, rest in peace, a single mother of 3 and worked several jobs to make end's meat. we came from humble beginnings and seeing how hard she worked to put food on the table. shoes on our feet and roof over or head instilled a hard work ethic in me. this irrelevant made me realize

young they was not born with a silver spoon and the world was going to be very different for a person like me. it took me a long time to find my purpose in life the road was not easy. but today i am proud to say now in the second year in business. there are 5 employees including myself that are all transgender women. we provide gender affirming service for the transgender community. by the transgender community. we are proud to be the first open low transowned and operated practice in the city of san francisco. the definition of hard needs to make more chiefly or can have the. we are honored do this work. with your continued support, we

hope to grow and be open for business for many years to come. for those of you out there this feel unsure of your purpose in life or lost at times. please know this i have been in your shoes before. i want be you to listen when i'm know to tell you. you are the star of your own story. you control the narrative of your life. live with love for yourself. love yourself with your whole heart. and believe in yourself. because being trans, is powerful. you have the power to make your history as beautiful as you wish it to be. thank you, everybody and help transgender history month. [applause] >> thank you. thank you too to brianna can

carlo and melanie as well. before i welcome mayor breed back to hand out certificates of honor to 4 recipients i would like to give a special shout out to someone i look up to joaquin gerrero appointed to homelessness oversight commission. which was legislative last year. [applause] joaquin is i brilliant political transadvocate and incredible housing navigator. so thank you, joaquin for being you and your mentorship. now let's welcome mayor london breed back. [applause] >> are you going to help me, jupiter? i know i miss third degree part of my notes.

okay i'm going to wing it. [laughter]. we have some of our youth. first of all i want to start with a certificate honoring someone who i just absolutely adover during the pandemic the ability to have a conversation with her and to talk to her about the challenges and obstacles to be at this moment. and how she told me donna persona told me how it fills her heart with joy ton what the city is doing >> how the next generation will not have to suffer in the same ways she has had to and the fact. she is i know donna persona but donna who reflects, all of what it means to persevere and over

come and to still be standing and looking good i see your legs, girl. so, donna for all of that you do to really make a difference to show up time and time again to be a testament of resilience and strength and support for the community and a strong desire to ensure that the next generation is uplifted and supported; we wanted honor your legacy. celebrating and you thanking you for being so amazing so, donna... [applause] i want to thank the mayor of san fan for this honor.

by taking this award i vow to keep the history that i helped bring to the world. the cafeteria riot. i cowrote a play to document and bring forth this history. and i vow to keep working and bringing that history to the world. and to show that -- transpeople can thrive. not just survive but thrive and show themselves as the wonderful people that they are. thank you. [applause] >> and you know i know that folks like donna and billie cooper and others here, would have never imagined that it would be possible to see a day when young people can get a lot

of the gender affirming surgeries. the new technology can occur when is amazing about the young people we are here to honor today is their courage. their courage to be able to step out and be who they want to be. in this world. and i know that so many of the folks here with the challenges this exist not just in the united states but all overnight world. you know it does take courage to stand out on faith and to acid vocate and push. fact they put together an amazing march to allow for body autonomy the ability to decide what you want top do for your own body that is your decision. and your decision alone and they stood up and they went out on faith and created a march that

brought together so many people from all over to really just continue to acknowledge it. it is my body my choice that works for wloo someone chooses to have an abortion. wloo someone chooses to do when they choose but we deserve that right this . snks generation is push to ensure that body autonomy is respected we are honoring them for work and advocacy and the ability with the young legs to stands this long without sitting down. this honors youth organizers of san francisco the san francisco march for queer and trans-youth autonomy. [applause] [applause]

>> hello, everyone. i'm am one of the organizers of the queer march. i want to acknowledge how grateful i am for all of us myself and my organizers. for the certificate of honor. we spent, lot of time organizing over zoom. a lot of late nights trying to -- make the most of this march and really pushing our dedication to the trans-community and how we want other youth to feel the same way as we do. being able to speak out about who they are, express themselves

the way they want to. without reservation. and -- i will leave it there. again other thank you so much for joining us and i appreciate everyone here. thank you. [applause]. >> all right. that concludes our program, thank you all for being here for the second annual transgender history month. once again, thank you to mayor london breed. the recipients of the certificates of honor. a huge congratulations! and i invite folks to enjoy some

really delicious snacks with transflags on top and refreshments it is really hot in here. so -- without further adieu, on the count of 3, i want us to shout, happy transgender history month! and fill had beautiful city hall and have our sound ricochet up to the dome! are we ready! >> yea. >> i want to do it really loud. okay? one! two! three! happy transgender history month! [applause] [applause]

>> i'm san francisco's first drag laureate and the first one in the world. the drag laureate program and the position is one this celebrates an artist for being the best in their craft and i'm proud to have received that

xroel it it is afternoon ambassador role. a role that represents the lbgtq+ community in san francisco the focus on the drag performers and trans-activists and performers in san francisco as well. when i heard the city was creating the drag laureate role i was so excited because it did foal like they were paying attention to us. and cared about when we gave culturally and economically to the city >> here is your new drag laureate for the city and county of san francisco! i'm getting the call from the mayor i was chosen was fantastic day. i will always remember. i thought that it would just be about the bay area. because of what happening in the world it became a national story. i hope it can shine a light on

san francisco and how they take care of the drag community and the lbgtq+ community. i hope that i can help carve out this position and create a role with programs and events this can be passed down to future drag laureate this is come after me and can set a stage and standard for what this program is in san francisco and national low and inner nationally. there is a rich history in san francisco. that the drag community has been part of. i'm very proud to follow in their footsteps and able to maintain what the drag community has done in the past and move forward with creating a bright future. my job is to elevate and celebrate

>> i'm alice king this is my husband shawn kim and we other ordinance of joe's ice cream in san francisco. joe's ice cream in rich mondistrict since 1959 and we are proud to be registered a san francisco legacy business since 2017. and we offer more than 50 flavors of homemade ice cream. and delicious home style burgers, sandwiches, hot dog, salad and more. we have a lot of different ice cream flavors both classic, long forgotten but classic and asian flavor inspired flavor like 3 red bean and black and now we also brought the korean i'm from korea. korean coffee krooem.

we mix our traditional and trendy flavors all together. shawn and i are the first generation of the immigrants here in san francisco. so as immigrants, we have a special connection to this diverse community, san francisco richmond district. so we made this place our home. that is where we are trying to build our business as a place where everybody can feel welcome like we felt when we first came here what really makes fisher or joe's ice cream we have been growing together with our community. so we support our local schools throughout the fundraiser. we provide job opportunity for high school, i hire them every year. built a beautiful parklet outside funded by donations from

over 200 neighbors and friends and i think this really shows how joe's ice cream and our community like lives together. so -- you see our mission is to serve as a fun community hub in san francisco and richmond district. so, i hope that we can stay this way for many years. >> the stewardship program is a (indiscernible) based program. we work with student kind r garten through 12 grade and work with scrks fusd and (indiscernible) focus on 5 themes. sense of place, plant adapation and

animal adaptation, water soil or (indiscernible) depending on the grade level and accommodations the class may need the educators work to adapt the programming to be whatever works best for the class, so they can gain activities (indiscernible) some don't, we try to meet students where they are at and get comfortable connecting in the space and feeling a sense of ownership and safety within their (indiscernible) >> the first component of a youth stewardship program trip will be a in clasds visit where we go to the school, we give a presentation on the natural history of san francisco, we talk about the concept of a habitat, so what does a habitat contain, understood, water, shelter, space. >> children at this age, they learn best through using their senses, having the

real life experience and (indiscernible) students also learn about responsibility and it is a great message for student to learn, if you take care of environment, the environment will take care of you. >> so, when we finally get the kids outside, we have two main components to the field trips. one is going to be the restoration component where we are working on the habitat and parks by pulling out (indiscernible) or maybe watering, and then the other side of our trip is going to be the educational component, which can range from a nature walk with a sensory theme where we are talking about what we smell and hear, to a focus on plant adaptation and animal adaptations. >> (indiscernible) >> just a great

opportunity for students to learn more, connect with nature, and hopefully what they learn from the youth stewardship program they can take with them for the rest of their lives, and they will appreciate their environment more. hopefully, when they appreciate it, they take care of it more every day. >> (indiscernible) >> so every year we open the application up in the fall. interested teachers can apply for a classroom visit and up to two field trips to the city park of their choice. field trips are 2 and a half hours long and like i said, they can happen in any city park (indiscernible)