restaurant industry, me being a chef it is a pretty male dominant world out there, and i think it is really special the two of us have been able to come together as women and open this restaurant four months to the day before shutdown and keep the doors open still. we put a lot of love into this place. we try to make it feel you are walking into someone's living room where you are comfortable. we are at 482 mission street. welcome to check our lovely environment and have a cocktail morning folks welcome to the

january 17th 2025 regular meeting of the san francisco ethics commission excuse me. today's meeting is live webcast on s.f. gov tv two and live streamed online at s.f. gov tv dot org for slash ethics live for public comment members of the public may attend in person or may participate by phone or the webex platform as explained in our agenda materials. mr. clerk would you please explain how public comment will be handled public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak for those attending in person opportunities to speak during the public comment period will will be made available here in room 416 city hall for those attending remotely public comment can also be provided via phone call by calling 14156550001 access code is 26633755989 followed by the pound sign and then press

the pound sign again to join as an attendee when your item of interest comes up press star three to raise your hand to be added to the public comment line public comment is also available be available via the webex client application use the webex link on the agenda to connect and press the raise hand button to be added to the public comment line for detailed instructions about how to interact with the telephone system or a webex client. please refer to the public comment section of the agenda document for this meeting. public comment may also be submitted in writing and will be shared with the commission after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part of the official meeting file. written comments should be sent to ethics commission at self-governance. org members of the public who attend commission meetings including remote attendance are expected to be here responsibly and respectfully during public comment. please address your comments to

the commission as a whole and not to individual members persons who engage in name calling, shouting and interruptions, foul language or other distracting behavior behavior may be excluded from participation. >> thank you mr. clerk. and now call the meeting to order. clerk would you please call the roll under item number one. >> commissioners, please verbally indicate your presence by saying i after your name is called sheriff and live. hi commissioner salahi i commissioner francois i performed live with three members present and accounted for you have a quorum. >> thank you but i'll call you an item two general public comment does anyone in the room wish to make public comment? not seeing anyone in person mr. clerk would you check if there's anyone on our online platform driven live? we were checking to see if there are callers in the queue

. sheriff i live there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you for checking seeing no callers i call item two is now closed. we're going to proceed to the calendar. i'm going to take things a little bit out of order to accommodate some folks are here in person so we'll start by calling agenda item 11 then

we'll call the rest of the calendar in the regular order. so i now call again item 11 discussion on possible action regarding request for a waiver of compensated advocacy provision for hans laid off mr. canning thank you chair commissioners. i'll briefly summarize the matter which is a request by hans off for a limited waiver to the ses compensated advocacy rule after i introduce the issue mr. baldauf is present and available to speak as well. section 3.2 24a of the campaign and governmental conduct code prohibits city officers from directly or indirectly receiving any form of compensation to communicate with any other officer or employee of the city with the intent to influence a decision. this rule is an important safeguard for ensuring the integrity of decision making and seeks to prevent situations where city officers could use their positions to exert undue influence over city officials on behalf of paying clients. the commission, however, has

the ability to waive this prohibition for any officer who by law must be appointed to represent any profession a trade business union or association. mr. baldauf serves on seat two of the historic preservation commission a seat that may only be filled by licensed architects that meet certain standards related to historic architecture. given this, mr. baldauf is eligible to receive a waiver should the commission deem it appropriate to grant him one. mr. baldauf is also a founding partner of the bcd architecture plus interiors. in his waiver request he explains how part of his role requires him at times to speak with city officials on behalf of his firm and their clients which is why he is seeking a waiver to communicate with the departments listed in the request. mr. baldauf has also said that if granted a waiver he would delegate such communications to the best extent possible only using the waiver in situations where other qualified members of his firm are not available.

>> when determining the appropriateness of a waiver for mr. baldauf, the ethics commission regulations specify that the commission may consider the following factors. one. the ability for the city to recruit qualified individuals to fill the position in question. if the waiver were not granted to the ability of the member to engage in their particular vocation if the waiver were not granted and any other factors the commission deems relevant. looking at these factors in the past the mayor's office has requested waivers for seats on the historic preservation commission particularly seat one. a waiver was granted back in 2019. as part of that communication the mayor's office stated that filling these positions can be very challenging given the unique qualification requirements and that not granting these types of waivers could create situations where only retirees or members of very large firms are able to serve on the hpc.

to the second factor mr. baldauf has stated that not receiving a waiver may lead to a situation where it's not feasible for him to continue serving on the hpc while meeting his obligations to his firm. >> based on the factors based on these factors and the limited nature of the request especially the fact that mr. baldauf is not seeking a waiver to communicate with the hpc or the planning department or its employees staff recommends the commission grant the waiver to mr. baldauf that's limited as specified in the staff memo specifically that it's only applicable to the entities listed in the waiver request that it's only applicable to situations where other members of mr. mold ups firm couldn't reasonably make the communication. and additionally the waiver should be limited only to communications made on behalf of bcp plus interiors or its clients. thank you and i'm happy to take any questions and as i mentioned mr. boulder is here and able to speak as well. thank you for that.

i have no questions but i can just share my thinking and then we can pick up mr. baldauf and that way you have the benefit of what we're thinking as you talk with us. i was just going to ask that madam deputy city attorney can we take public comment now? just so we have the benefit of the extent we have any comment as we move on we don't have to wait too long, right? >> no, you can take great. >> does anyone in the gallery wish to make public comment on this item? seeing none. mr. clerk, would you check if there are any callers? >> chair from that we're checking to see if there are callers in the queue.

>> sheriff i love there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you mr. clerk. mr. baldauf thank you for being here. we look forward hearing from you. my only question is i'll just tell you how i'm thinking. i intend or sorry. right now i very much support staff's recommendation. i think they laid out the issues well. well, the question should be whether you have any issues with the narrow kind of not narrow but the waiver as envisioned in the recommendation which is based on communications only with the agency's bullet bulleted and the memo. those are my thoughts and i'll just before we speak i'll get my colleagues a chance to talk. >> that way you can direct any comments toward any questions they may have. i have nothing further, dad. >> all right, mr. ball off the floor. >> no. first of all, thank you very much for hearing this first. i appreciate it. i you know, i asked for this

waiver out of an abundance of caution. i am trying to not get into any situation where i'm running afoul of the both the spirit and the letter of the rules here. but there are times in just the practice of architecture where you are all of a sudden at a meeting and something comes up and you a supervisor walks into the meeting and it becomes awkward and complicated and so i'm trying to make sure that i am following the rules and i think very narrowly. i as i say, i'm trying to delegate anything that would to other people in our office. but there are just times where situations present themselves and i don't want to just by my presence or saying something be construed as advocating. as a lobbyist i'm not trying to do that.

>> i'm just trying to practice architecture. well i think we all thank you for so thoughtfully raising the issue to me i don't see any real risk of untoward influence in your roles. i think the city is lucky to have folks like you stepping up to serve on commissions and i think it would be a shame if you couldn't do that. so any other comments from my colleagues? >> yeah, i agree with chair finley. >> thank you very much. so with that i would move to adopt the staff's recommendation as outlined in the memo on agenda item 11. >> thank you and i'll second mr. clerk would you take roll please? >> let's start before we do that. i'm just asking that madam deputy city attorney. do i need to spell out on the record the specific recommendation in terms of how the waiver is kind of framed? >> yes. and that's well, thank you. since that's spelled out in the staff recommendation, if you'd like to just move to adopt the waiver as specified in the staff recommendation that would be sufficient. >> right. thanks.

thank you. i think that's what i did. so i think we have a pending vote. thank you, madam deputy city attorney. >> on the on the motion to adopt staff recommendation on agenda item 11 sheriff and live by commissioner salahi high commissioner francois sure. finally with three votes in the affirmative the motion is approved unanimously. >> right. best wishes to you. thank you. that will go back to the consent calendar i now call item it was item well, so i should say there's one item on the sound calendar i'd like to move which was previously item four. >> i don't know if it's now item five but the executive director's report will move everything else on the consent calendar will remain there unless my colleagues want to pull anything and discuss it separately. seeing none i move to adopt the consent calendar which would be

the draft minutes previously item three and the enforcement report item five second mr. clerk would you do any take public comment? yes. thank you. is anyone in the room who would like to make public comment on the concerned calendar? seeing none mr. clerk, would you check if there are any callers, please? >> thank you. the chair finally, if there are no callers in the queue. all right. thank you. >> on the motion to the to adopt the consent calendar item three and item five a chair from high commissioner salahi i commissioner francois i chair friendly with three votes in the affirmative the motion is approved unanimous. that i now call item can't keep track of the numbers because we ran a little bit but it will be the executive rector's report previously item four thank you mr. ford.

>> director ford thank you chair for the live. do you have any questions about the report? i'm glad to go through it if you'd like or it could just talk about any items that are of interest. >> noble questions the reason i call it is i was really happy to see all the new staff mentioned in the report and i see some folks are here in the gallery so i want to take this opportunity to welcome you all to the commission. it's a great place to be. i'm really happy to see you all here. i know the staff has put a lot of work into finding the best and the brightest so welcome here. i'm not asking you all to say anything because this is public and on the record i want to welcome you all and give my colleagues a chance to say anything anything that they'd like to say. yeah, i echo that and that was one thing that really stood out to me some really great additions to the commission staff and so congratulations and thank you to everyone who worked on this and making it happen. you know, i definitely want to recognize gayathri and our h

our analyst nikki choo if she's watching they put in a ton of work getting all these recruitments through. it is a lot of work to hire in city and also to all the managers and everybody else in the office that participated in the interviews we interviewed many, many people for these 13 recruitments. yeah and seeing the wealth of experience and backgrounds that people have i think they're going to valuably contribute to the commission. so it's really great to see. thank you and thank you director void i think i have to take public comment since i pulled this item. so does anyone in the gallery wish to make public comment on this item seeing none. mr. clark would you check if there are any callers? >> chair found that there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you adam that item is now closed. with that i call to make sure i have the number and right would it be number five so just keep the same number separate.

i call item number six which is discussion and possible action regarding the push the relation decision and order the matter of randy collins mr. demicco thank you chair. good morning. and so this is a matter i'll give a brief summary and then i'm available for questions. the matter involves randy collins who is a respondent. he was a member of the board of examiners from 2014 2024. during that time he was also the founder and ceo of ftf engineering i the three counts in this case are that during the period in question that is included in the statute of limitations from 2020 to 2024 count one there was one year in which respondent did not file a form 700 as 2022 count two there were five occasions in which the respondent mr. collins did not include paid

the various contracts over the $10,000 threshold that ftf engineering received and then count number three there was one year where respondent did not file a certificate of taking the ethics training and did not file a sunshine ordinance declaration. now the unique thing about this matter and the reason that our proposed penalties are at 200 per count for a total of 600 is that respondents the board of examiners did not meet at all during the period covered by the statute of limitations. the board met four times during respondent's ten years. he attended two of those meetings. the final meeting of which was held in 2018. this means that respondent did not have a practical opportunity to influence a decision during the period in question in which he did not complete all his relevant filings and trainings. that said, we do still believe a small penalty is appropriate because we do still believe these laws are important

especially it's important to make sure that all of one's financial disclosures are complete so that if the board had met both we as regulators and the public would be able to figure out if there were any potential conflicts of interest for example. >> but because the board did not meet we believe it would be unduly harsh to penalize respondent anything more than a de minimis amount to emphasize the importance of the loss. >> but just on that point so the violations themselves are within the statue limitations. >> it's just that the board happened to not me during that time. yes and again because important because in 2020 and 21 and 22 the respondent did not know that the board would not meet ever again during his time there and so he was still required to complete these filings. it's just that he never actually had any sort of opportunity to influence a decision in that time. >> yeah, that makes sense to me. i'm just curious though what is

the board of examiners and how do they not have any meetings and that's kind of irrelevant but i guess as a matter of curiosity. >> sure. yes. so the board of examiners they they determine whether or not new construction material or methods of construction are compliant with certain safety rules around construction and architecture in the city and ftf engineering, as i mentioned is an engineering and architecture firm that respondent worked at. got it. thank you. thank you for the write up. i agree with the analysis and the outcome particularly given the unique circumstances of the case and one question i had was with respect to the violations outside the statue limitations whether there is anything that you learned in the process of reviewing that about whether they had been flagged earlier or not and whether there's something that could change moving forward to help identify violations before they become too old to take action on.

>> yes. so it's something that i i don't want to the someone else may be better to speak about. it's been something that we've started working on and will be continuing to work on is certain not necessarily automation but we're working with our at a department to be able to more quickly essentially scan filings and again i'm not a technical expert so my language is not correct but essentially automating the process of looking through filings and looking through city officers to be able to pick out people that we should take a closer look at earlier in the process. so that's definitely something that will be incorporated into that effort. >> thank you commissioner francois, any questions? >> i do just have a question. i saw that i was reading that commissioner i think that mike is oh i'm sorry. can you hear me here? i'm moving closer. he said on okay. i just have a couple of questions. we're just really one because

it said that he didn't file for 2000 for three years 2017 did i did i misread that there were several years before the statute of limitations covers that he also did not file and what is the process when someone doesn't file for one year rather than 2 or 3 years? how does that happen? i'm just curious. well, our office sends we send reminders in the lead up to the filing deadline for annual filers. we also send out notifications when someone is late on filing and i. i personally cannot speak to what our process was in 2017 and 2018 for dealing with late or non-filers but i know that now we have you know enforcement staff is working to try and sort of create a

streamlined process and we have the streamlined process but also create an expedited process for bringing non-filers and late filers into compliance . okay? so that we don't end up with a situation of multiyear non-filers thank you. is there a motion a move to adopt the item item number six the staff recommendation and the stipulation? i'll second thank you mr. tamika. thank you. i'm sorry did we skip public comment? we haven't done that. sorry. does anyone in the room wish to make public comment on this item? seeing none. mr. clerk, would you check if there are any callers chair filled live? >> there are no callers in the queue. thank you. whenever you're ready you can take a vote on the motion to adopt staff recommendation for item number six chair friendly

i commissioner salahi i commissioner francois i chair friendly with three votes in the affirmative the motion is approved unanimously. >> thank you mr. clerk. item six is now closed. i now call agenda item seven discussion and possible action regarding proposed ssab stipulation decision and order in the matter of budget policy because i should say sorry how do you say sorry? what's the we do say chair i thank you chair commissioners good morning. this is a matter that involves respondent bert pileggi. he's a senior vice president of and community relations at maximus real estate partners and he's been a contact lobbyist lobbyist registered in reporting with the commission since at least january of 2014 and april of 22. mr. platt you acted as an intermediary of the $10,000 campaign contribution and failed to report that contribution on this monthly lobbyist disclosure report for the month of april 22nd through

investigation the commission did not find any additional campaign contributions that mr. pileggi failed to report. he took responsibility for the violation and filed an amendment to disclose that campaign contribution on the relevant disclosure report. this matter was resolved on the commission's streamlined administrative resolution program site where the penalty amount is $500 plus the penalty modifier of 15% of the unreported contribution in this case that was $500 plus $1,500 because mr. polaski filed that amendment and timely engaged with the program within the initial 30 day span. >> i'm glad to answer any other questions that commissioners may have about this matter. thank you. i don't have any questions. i thought the writeup was very clear and helpful. >> i agree with that. i agree it's well there's public comment. is there anyone in the room wish to make public comment on this item? seeing none.

mr. clerk would you check if there are any callers please ? >> chair found that there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you mr. clerk i move to adopt staff's recommendation an agenda item number seven second on the motion to adopt

staff recommendation for agenda item seven chair fellow high commissioner salahi i commissioner francois i chair friendly with three votes in the affirmative the motion is approved unanimously. thank you sir john item seven is now closed and i call agenda item eight discussion and possible action regarding proposed step stipulation decision and order and that julio ramos and julio ramos for college board 2024. >> for the record, eric willett, investigator with the ethics commission enforcement division this matter involves mr. julio ramos and julio ramos for college board 2024. mr. ramos was an unsuccessful candidate in the november 2024 general election. during that election cycle mr. ramos and his committee failed to include proper disclaimer language on campaign communications that they made in support of mr. ramos's candidacy for city elective office. these communications had improper campaign disclaimer language included that was

partially correct but ultimately did not meet the standards and requirements. these included communications such as yard and window signs and the committee's website. as a result of the investigation, mr. ramos corrected the website disclaimer within approximately one month of that website being live and for the yard window signs only through 30 of which were distributed and any future ones he had corrected the disclaimer on those that were distributed after that initial throw with the improper disclaimer this matter was also resolved in the commission streamlined program and that is a $500 penalty when the respondent corrects disclaimers where practicable and within 30 days of contact by the enforcement division i hear mr. ramos did correct those disclaimers engaged with the program timely and first a $500 penalty was applicable.

>> welcome. any questions for commissioners? thank you mr. willard. i think this is a good action. i'm just curious the the website issue is that it didn't list that the financial disclosures were available at as of ethics but what was the specific issue with the website let's trying to sort that out in a paragraph towards the bottom on page six well that's where i was looking i don't want to direct you anyway. correct. so the website had the following disclaimer paid for by julio j. ramos for s.f. college board which is the incorrect name of his candidate control committee . okay. and is it all because of the initial correct so he had incorrect community name and he also failed to include the self ethics disclosures for the financial statements. >> got it right. and those are important because that's where folks need to go to see the actual transactions

behind them. indeed and not the correct committee so they can look up. great. thank you mr.. but i don't have any other any other questions nor do i thank you. thank you. all right. i move to adopt staff's recommendation on agenda item i would although i keep forgetting sorry. thank you. is there anyone in the room who would like to make public comment on this item? seeing none mr. clerk, would you check the three callers please? >> sure. friendly. we were checking to see if there are callers in the queue and live there are no callers in the queue. thank you for checking i will move again. okay. remember forgot to second i moved to adopt the staff's recommendation an agenda item eight so you can second i think commissioner commissioner francois seconds second on the motion to adopt staff recommendation for agenda item eight chair for live i

commissioner salahi i am commissioner francois i chair finally with three votes in the affirmative the motion is approved unanimously. >> thank you jenna item eight is now closed. i now call agenda item nine presentation the public hearing and possible of actions on ethics commission budget priorities for the fiscal year 2025 through 26 and fiscal year 26 through 27. >> thank you chair for live for the record pat for detective director got a slide deck mat load up right goodness of gov

tv display that great thank you city law requires that we have two hearings on the budget before we submit the budget to the mayor's budget office. so this is the first of those two hearings and the second one will be at the commission's next meeting february 7th. so today i want to give you an overview of what the mayor's budget instructions are. recap what the ethics commission's departmental budget is■ and giv you the opportunity to have a conversation with each other about what priorities you have in the coming fiscal year and that will help me and guy three as we go through and create a budget proposal to bring back to you at the february meeting. so then you'll actually have a proposal to react to we don't have that today. we just kind of have the landscape for you and then we can have a conversation and then over the next couple of

weeks we'll we'll put that together. >> so as i mentioned we'll have to submit the budget to the mayor's office, the proposed budget february 21st and this is the first of those two public hearings that city law requires. this is something that started about 4 or 5 years ago. i think the the board really wanted to make sure commissions were having an opportunity for the public to come in and not to have all that funneled into the board's budget process. the slide shows some strategic priorities that i've identified . i'd definitely be curious if you have feedback on these or if you have additional priorities that are important to you but these roughly track what the commissions main operational programs are and roughly aligned with our divisions. but i wanted to put a finer point on exactly what we're trying to focus on in the next

couple of fiscal years. so the first one is to provide effective educational materials and compliance assistance and that's of course to better inform the people who we regulate and i'm talking about political committees, city officers and employees, lobbyists, etc. to make sure that they understand the law and can follow it and also to engage members of the public, people who are trying to learn about our laws just to inform themselves or to hold public officials accountable always want to make sure they have good information so secondly to conduct thorough and timely audits right now we are revamping the audit process and really making it new and more modern with the goal of getting all of the audits of publicly financed candidates done within about a year of those final filings which are going to be due at the end of this month. thirdly, to strengthen enforcement in particular by doing more proactive investigations and by doing

larger and more impactful cases . obviously we've had some of those recently. we want to do more. we want to make sure that we're focusing the resources in a way that allows us to do those big long term cases next to make sure that our electronic disclosure systems are very strong. you may have seen in the id report i had a couple of updates that we just converted our final disclosure program to electronic filing. so we now have full e-filing of all of our disclosures. that's something that we've been trying to work toward for a really long time. yeah, probably 10 or 15 years and we finally closed the gap on that one. but there's still work to do in terms of going back in modernizing those systems, making sure that they're effective, that people can use them well and then the next bullet point really talks about our policy process of reviewing the laws that the commission administers, making sure that they're working.

i think we've got a couple of projects in mind that we could talk about at a future meeting one involving campaign finance ,one involving lobbying laws that would be really impactful and then the final two bullets are really just general goals that we have across all of our operations which are to enhance operational efficiency in particular by implementing standardized procedures using more detailed performance indicators, increasing automation and using more data driven approaches. these are things that we know we have the tools to do and we want to really implement them more to make sure our work is as efficient as possible and lastly to maintain the staffing that we know that we need in order to get all of that work done. and that's going to be a major theme of this budget cycle which we'll talk about in a moment. so this slide gives a high level overview of the commission's current budget and what we call the baseline budget for the next two fiscal

years and i'll explain what that is so the current fiscal year budget for fiscal year 25 which ends at the end of june we have a $6.75 million annual operating budget and we actually have 29 funded positions currently but during most of the fiscal year we were at this bizarre 27.61 number those are you see things like that doesn't mean we have 27.61 people it means that's the average number of funded positions we have during the fiscal year and that has to do with timing of when we are allowed to hire a position sometimes the mayor's office will say you can hire this position but you have to wait until this date. you can't start paying somebody until then just because that's how much money they're willing to give us. so that's why you get these weird fractional numbers of fte is what the baseline budget is is it's basically a way to say if we continued our current operations and current staffing levels and current contracts

that we have at their planned rate, what would the budget be ? the reason why it increases is mostly because of the planned cost of living adjustments that are baked into all of the city's ammo use with the bargaining units. so there's a schedule right now i think every six months for the next three and a half years there's a cost of living adjustment of 1 to 2% every six months. so that's why even if we keep existing fte count you'll see the budget increase in other similar things like contracts that we have with net file work orders we have with other departments even if we keep those more or less level they can fluctuate over time. so that's why you see these numbers changing but basically you see the fte count remaining right at 29. this slide just shows you how that breaks down again, you see the same numbers you saw in the previous slide for our current

approved budget and the next two fiscal years if we were to stay with our baseline and you can see that right now we're just over 85% salary and benefits were very staff heavy organization. we don't have a lot of equipment or grants or contracts that we make with community based organizations or vendors. we really are mostly an organization of people doing this work and you could see that that actually just deepens over the next couple of fiscal years with those planned cost of living adjustments our budget becomes even a little bit more heavily weighted towards salary and benefits. >> just a quick note because this is always something that's part of our budget which is the election campaign fund and this is how the city's public financing program is funded. this is a distinct fund separate and apart from our operating budget. so whenever the mayor's proposed budget comes out it'll say the ethics commission's budget is $15 million. it's not $50 million.

we have the operating budget around about 7 million and then the election campaign fund will actually fluctuate quite wildly year to year because of how the city funds it and because of major expenditures out of that fund during an election year in this last election in 2024 i think it was around $9 million of expenditures out of that fund plant. >> imagine we can use that money for operating expenses, right? >> it's we we can in a very limited way in we're actually exploring that right now what is the the full extent of what we are allowed to do? there is a provision in the code that allows us to use i believe it's up to 15% of the balance of the fund for costs that are associated with administering the program. the balance of the fund is a moving target so i think we have to figure out what that means. what is 15% of the balance when that changes all the time and what is the cost associated with administration of the program? so we definitely want to use that to the fullest extent we can but we are fairly limited

because previously those costs have been absorbed by the operating budget, correct? >> for example the main cost would be the staff hours that go into reviewing those claims for public financing and then on the back end doing the statutorily required audits. got it. >> exactly. but we have for example use that 15% of the fund in the past to pay external auditors. as you remember we've in the past used external vendors to complete those statutorily required audits. we've been able to use funds from the election campaign fund to help pay for that. thank you. so more details on that to come as we learn exactly how that works and this is what our divisional org chart is right now and you might remember that we have a new division, the operations division which we created through the last budget. >> so gary three now has a team to help her with all the important budget operational

and h.r. work things like running commission meetings all kinds of you know basic department wide functions that we have those are now all subsumed within that division and then you'll see the standard five divisions that we've had for a long time and this is our position or chart and as i mentioned in the report we have 29 funded positions and we currently have all 29 of them filled which is a first as far as any of us are aware of in the history of the commission. i don't know that we've ever had zero vacancies before. the red boxes that you see here those are positions that are technically in our org chart. they are not funded. we have no authority to hire those positions. they are required to be held open permanently in order to meet what's called our attrition savings target which is just a weird feature of how the city does its budget. it says well technically you have 32 positions but your

attrition target is going to require you to hold three of them open. so pick three that you want to never hire for. that's what these three are. so you can see there's a senior clerk position, there's a senior policy analyst position and there's an investigator position. so i would consider right now we have no vacancies where we're fall but we do have these kind of weird kind of zombie positions that we can't use. >> so now that we've talked about commission's operations in our budget i want to segue into talking about what the mayor's budget instructions are and these budget instructions actually came from mayor london breed these came out let's say early december so we did know the outcome of the election at that time. however, she did issue budget instructions. mayor daniel lurie has not issued any additional budget instructions or anything at this time that would change

what these are. so we do understand these to be the budget instructions that we will be operating under for this this budget. the only thing that he did which i'll talk about in a moment is to institute a hiring freeze. so these are the three main high level priorities that mayor breed put into the budget instructions. first one is to maintain core city services including public safety and clean streets. the second one is to continue significant progress decreasing unsheltered homelessness, ensuring effective mental health treatment and the third one is to propose opportunities to improve operational efficiency and service delivery and reporting across all areas of city service and in furtherance of those priorities. these are the instructions that we're given. the bottom line number here is a 15% cut and that is 15% in both years of the budget. so as you know, every time the city does its budget which is every year it's actually a two

year budget. so right now we are going through the process of determining what the budget is for both fy 26 and fy 27 but we will come back in 12 months and we will do fy 27 again. >> that's how the city does budget. >> they call it a two year budget but we do it every year so there's 15% would be across both years so it would be for fy 26 and fy 27. this is not just a temporary 15% cut. this is going on into the future. the second one is that this doesn't really apply to the ethics commission too much but assessing community based organizations grant allocations for efficiency we don't make grants to cbos third to reexamine all contractual services and non personnel expenditures. we don't have a ton of those but we certainly will look and see if there's savings that we can find but we really have very few contracts. mostly we have net file and doc is signed for our e-filing systems. those are our big vendor contracts forth to eliminate

vacancies and not add new ftes into hire only for core departmental functions. and lastly to consider a hiring freeze. those were the instructions in december but on january ninth, mayor larry's first full day in office he declared a hiring freeze. so luckily we have no vacant positions right now or a full 29 member staff. however, if we were to have a vacancy we would not be able to fill it unless we went through a process that the mayor's office is creating right now to request an exception because this is not a complete hiring freeze. the mayor did say that public safety positions and positions that are necessary for operations or something like that can be hired but you have to get approval so if we find ourselves in that situation we will definitely be going through that process and making a request and that separate

from the budget that's for right now any positions you have right now. >> so the way that this 15% budget cut would translate for our department is that it would be an ongoing cut of $1.1 million and we are required to submit a budget that meets that cut. we have to input that into the city's budget system and we have to be in compliance as you remember from previous budget years, we can also make a separate request for something that does not involve a 15% cut. it could be something less than that or it could be no cut. but we do have to propose a scenario to them for them to consider of what that would look like to do a 15% cut and because of the fact that we are about 86% staff and a lot of those non personnel costs are

things we cannot stop paying for. we can't stop paying the rent on our office. we can't stop paying net file to run our disclosure system. we can't stop paying other departments like da to provide necessary services to us a lot or nearly all of that cut would come out of our staff budget so that would involve a reduction in the number of positions that we have. so to recap what the process is, february 21st is when we need to have our budget proposal submitted to the mayor's office. i should have added on here that also february 7th will have an additional hearing here with you. but then following that february 21st we need to submit our proposal by june 1st the mayor submits his proposed budget to the board and it is still at that time just a proposed budget. the mayor does not actually have the full authority to set the budget.

the board actually does that. then in june the board goes through its budget process so that's when it forms up the full budget and appropriations committee five member committee and holds lots of hearings and departments come in and make presentations so we will be making a presentation at some point during the month of june . sometimes you have to come back for a second round if they want to make changes to your budget and then by august 1st the board has to pass the two ordinances that constitute the city's budget and that's a piece of legislation just like any other ordinance. and the mayor needs to sign it and for it to become operative. so obviously that is already into the next fiscal year but that's just how they do it. they approve the budget already in the fiscal year that we're approving the budget for. so that's an overview of the process and where we are. be glad to go back and talk

about any of that or answer any questions would definitely be curious to hear your feedback about the priorities that i articulated. >> i could go back to that slide two if you want to talk about that any additional priorities you have what you're thinking here, anything you can you can share. i have a question the the 15% target cut for the commission is that because some of the mayor's office has specifically said you ethics commission should target 15% or is that drawn from the citywide kind of 15%? >> that would be citywide and this is the approach we've seen every year is the mayor will articulate a single number that just reflects where they want to be. they want to reduce the deficit by a given amount. so they want to cut across the board that amount. they do not give different departments different percents in our experience although oftentimes departments end up in different places, some departments get cut more than others. >> got it. and then i was curious to hear the 9% or so that's for other services of other departments

is that kind of contract support or what does that go through? >> do you want to talk about that? sure i can. so the services of other departments are work orders with departments such as department of technology. they provide all of the infrastructure to communications as up of tv software licenses and things like that. we also have a quarter of a d a charge for our services but the comptroller's office, the office for accounting services ,real estate for and things like that. >> got it sounds like those are not things that can be done in-house or enjoyed by so those are like very you know, basic operational needs. >> yeah. okay. well the parties you laid out director ford make a lot of sense to me. welcome any comments from my colleagues i agree yeah i agree as well yeah i think i think you're doing good work and i think that's that for our granular input but everything you laid out makes sense. okay thank you.

and like i said you'll have something more concrete to react to at the next meeting so that might you know, drive more conversation. also hopefully we'll have two more commissioners at that meeting. we can see if they have any any specific ideas but we'll come to you with a full proposal of of how we think we could best sustain what would be a pretty serious cut to our budget without disrupting our operations more than more than we can avoid. and just out of curiosity about the process will you have an opportunity to get input or engagement from the mayor's office before you come to us on february 7th or even if it's informal, just a sense of it we're not too sure what that's going to look like there there is a process for that. so when we submit our budget proposal at the end of february historically then there has been back and forth with the mayor's budget office. so we have a budget analyst that's assigned to us that budget analyst reports to the mayor's budget director.

the budget director is in charge of putting together the mayor's proposed budget to send to the board so basically during march and april the mayor's budget office is reviewing our proposal and the proposal of all the other departments trying to assess what their priorities are, figure out where they want to spend their time and money and attention. oftentimes in the past i think we have not gotten a ton of attention on our budget. i think it's been hard to get the mayor's budget office to prioritize the ethics commission. i would love to see that change. i would love to see the mayor's budget office really take seriously the cuts that they're talking about doing to our office and think about the impact that's going to have and give us some time and attention on this budget and hopefully avoid some of these cuts because cutting a tiny department like ours does almost nothing to balance the overall budget. we understand it's part of their approach. they want fairness. they want an across the board haircut for everybody. but that just doesn't make sense for a small department that isn't issuing big grants and contracts. we're not spending cash.

we're very small staff doing important work so hopefully they will take the time to meet with us, learn about what we do and keep us from having to roll back the services we provide. >> yeah and i think that's exactly right. the cost benefit analysis seems kind of skewed in our situation and there's no way that we can do as commissioners to help with that message. >> just let us know, okay? i will. yeah it could be helpful in the past when you've had particularly difficult budget discussions we have involved the chair or other commissioners so i could see that being something where we may want to do but hopefully not and hopefully we can negotiate and come to a good conclusion. >> we won't have to do that. right. all right. thank you director for public comment. does anyone in the room wish to make public comment on this item? >> seeing none. mr. clarke, will you check are there any colors if there are no colors in the queue the clerk that closes item number

ten sorry nine a now call item ten discussion of enforcement regulation review project excuse me. >> thank you for the record my name is dr. mico, senior investigator with the enforcement division. >> this is so our our department, as you know over the last few years has made an increased effort as well as showed an increase increasing willingness to bring cases through the entire process. that's sketched out in our enforcement regulations, especially focusing on probable cause process, the pre hearing process and then the hearing on the merits process in that process we have learned a lot

both from the hearing that we held last year as well as from the many cases we have brought to the probable cause phase. we've learned a lot about how our enforcement regulations apply to these areas and how they could potentially be improved the enforcement regulations as you may know, were adopted in the late 1990s . in the past 28 years they've been amended 11 times. the most recent time was in 2018. so a lot has changed since then in our department's operations and i think regulation ones that were written in theory have now been put to practice and as i've mentioned we've learned about four opportunities to improve those regulations so as part of this we've identified a couple of different types of issues with the regulations that we think we can improve upon. the first two are just very basic updates to reflect

current practices as they've evolved. the second two are opportunities to provide clarity where there are currently ambiguities from our experience especially with the hearing that we held last year these are just things like the basic mechanics of how a hearing is held, how and who is appointed as a pre hearing officer and a hearing officer things like the order of who asks questions to witnesses and again you were all here for the hearing and i think you all experience that in real time as we did that additional guidance would be helpful both for us as the commission and staff but also for respondents giving them clarity on what they can expect as they move through the process. >> and then finally there are a few places where we feel the enforcement regulations contradict themselves or other laws and there can be improvements made on that regard as well. >> so our department is kicking

off what we hope to be a six month or so process to revise these enforcement regulations. the past four months we have been working on researching the regulations in other jurisdictions, talking to folks in other jurisdictions about what they do and how they address some of these issues that we've identified. and so we're using this meeting to sort of publicly announce this project to let you all know what the process will look like. we're not requesting any action at this time, but we'd like to give you the opportunity to weigh in on the process if you'd like and ask any questions essentially for the next few months we will be soliciting ideas and feedback from a number of parties. we're going to do at least one round of ip meetings, interested party meetings to solicit ideas and feedback. we welcome and encourage active participation from you all as commissioners getting your ideas and and getting feedback

as the proposed amendments work their way through the process. we've also already started working with the city attorney's office to ensure that we meet all requirements for potential meet and confer throughout the process and we hope to have final proposed amendments before you all by the end of the fiscal year which would be the end of june of 2025 and again there's no action that we're requesting today if you do have substantive suggestions we're welcome to take them today although today is mostly about sort of announcing the project and going through the process. but if you do have things you'd like us to take note of now or we're happy to thank you. mr. d'amico seems like a great effort. i'd be particularly interested in anything relating to the hearing process after the hearing we did a few months ago which i think went well but there definitely room for improvement and things that we learned a lot of takeaways from that but no other comments from

me at this point at this time yeah i agree with jeff and live thank you i'll take up public comment does anyone the room thank you mr. d'amico anyone in the room wishing to make public comment. seeing none. >> mr. clerk, would you check if there are any colors? chair friend that we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. >> sure. if there are no callers in the queue. oh caller thank you mr. clerk that closes item ten a now call item 12 items for future meetings. i have nothing personally colleagues anything for future meetings. does anyone in the room wish to make public comment on this item? seeing none mr. clerk would you check if there are any callers chair friendly there are no callers in the queue out of an

abundance of caution let's take public comment on the agenda item regarding the budget that was agenda item i did. >> yes you did. i did. before we close the meeting i want to confirm with the clerk that we have a motion on item four that was pulled off the consent calendar and if not we could you did take public comment on that. i just want make sure we have the motion directors report. >> i'm not sure there was any action required it you don't need one it's would be consistent with the the past practice i think to to do one so you could out of an abundance of caution if you want for the minutes i'm not sure the motion would be i guess would be to because there are no specific recommendations in there now there's there's no action so if you're if you're comfortable there's there's no reason you need to have that i'm comfortable with that. thank you. and then for i think i just say on agenda item 12 nothing from the commissioners on future meetings and i think we check

public comment in the room there was none mr. clerk will you check if there are any colors or none? thank you mr. clerk. item 12 is now closed. sorry. item. yeah, but was closed and i'll call item 13 additional opportunity for public comment . does anyone the room wish to make public comment on item 13 seeing none mr. clerk would you call item sorry would you see there any colors on item 13 chair for that we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue chair from if there are no callers in the queue. >> all right. item 13 is closed. i call item 14. >> adjournment. thank you everyone

[music] my name is-the coowner of chalosism and, my name is annie, the coowner of chalos.

>> we [indiscernible] like original style. and-it is more american and then coffee, local coffee. i am one of the chalos. so, my father is gonzalo [indiscernible] chalos means--i always been involved in food industry. we used to have a food restaurant and then i been in different parts of the world in spain, in the u.s., back in the days food industry, so it is my thing. and then, it was my-follow her to her country so that is why we opened chalos. >> i was born and raised in the sunset district. ng back from being abroad so long i have been over 8 years.

this neighborhood meant a lot to me. when we saw the space, i was like, that's it. this area i'm very familiar with. in the last 5 to 10 years it changed a lot. it is really good for young families. you dont need to leave the neighborhood anymore and what i like most about it, most of the businesses have local residents within district 4, the sunset area with their own businesses so it gives the community feel to it. one neat thing we have here is we have fride and baked-one of the only [indiscernible] everything is made from scratch. everything made fresh. we make the food when you order it. we have 15 different flavors. a lot of vegetarian, investigateen and churros are made every day. we have a new addition, a breakfast burrito made fresh, that is the

key to success. cheese, tater tots and bacon or breakfast sausage t. is a big burrito. that is a big hit. we have a full expresso bar. the most popular drink is the--it is very popular. but we have solid expresso drinks. chalos is open wednesday to sunday, wednesday-saturday 9 to 5 and sunday 9 to 3. [indiscernible] normal activity on taraval. [music]

welcome to sfgovtv in person i am jeremiah estep. y host today. and we are here at the united players clubhouse. and we are celebrating their 30th year anniversary of serving the community, specifically the south of market here in san francisco. and united players is a san francisco based youth development and violence prevention organization and i'm very happy to be here to talk to rudy and the rest of his staff. so let's introduce ourselves. hi. my name is vanessa. i'm one of the program managers here at united players. hi. my name is brandon jackson. i'm a program

coordinator for middle school. hi. my name is maria fabia. i'm a k-2 coordinator and i'm rudy corpus, better known as the gorilla pino, aka rudy valentin. i'm the edd of up. cool, cool. so can you tell us your journey and mission, how you got involved with united players? so originally when i started united players, it wasn't even something that i thought about doing. it was it just all kind of happened organically. i was hired at a nonprofit organization in san francisco called bernal heights neighborhood center, which is in district 11. i got hired as a filipino gang prevention counselor, and so my mission was to go find the filipino gang members, right? in that district 11. there's 11 districts in san francisco. and so i knew who they was all at. i'm born and raised in san francisco. i was appointed at lifestyle, so i knew they was all that went to balboa high school, which is in district 11. in 1994, it was off

the hook. and so upon being up at balboa, sure enough, they're all there. big fight ensued, right between different ethnicities. and from there, nobody was able to learn because of the violence that was going on. between the big fight between filipinos, blacks, samoans and latinos. so myself and several other people, andre alexander, right, shouts out to andre alexander. he was the coach of the football team at bao. there was a brother named late. you remember late big samoan. excuse my language. around six four. you know what i mean? from frisco, north beach, one of my partners. he was a hall guard. and he had, you know, a lot of good credibility with the youngsters that was up there at bao. and so at the time there was a filipino principal, their name was mr. montevergine. she was looking for solutions and the police couldn't stop it. nobody could stop it. so i got

what all those dudes, they was able to come in the room they wanted to meet. and from there they wanted to make a club because they came up with all the solutions and the answers to stop the violence. the kids did. the youth. and so they said, hey, we should name this a club. this is our this is in october of 94. and i gave the power to the people. i said, what do you guys want to name the club that we got right here? because everybody was getting along in the room, you know what i mean? and so united players up october 1994 was born. and that's how the name came. and so boom, fast forward. we're here in 2024 in october. so they're celebrating 30 years 30 years. yeah yeah. worldwide baby. yeah it is worldwide. you have so many people supporting you like kaepernick and yeah steph curry everybody right. they they they yeah they they they all seen i believe the spirit of what we do

and what we're about you know which is based on love. everything that we've been doing from day one way back then. way back then we was at balboa high school. right. so i met that guy at balboa. right. these two sisters right here from the neighborhood that i'm from, you know, i ain't from district 11. i'm from district six. born and raised south of market tenderloin. and so all over the world. and people saw that the love that the youth. right. yeah. who were involved in it, spread it. and you know who don't want to get no love. yeah. so they all part of it i'm thankful. yeah. that's dope. so how did you get involved? well, so i'm born and raised here in south of market area. so, you know they had the rec center over there. and so that's where all the youth would come and just gather. just everyone from the hood, you know, would just play basketball, you know, meet up, hang out after school. so i was in the third grade and i joined basketball for the first

time. i was garbage, like totally garbage. didn't like i was not the best, but i had this mentor named tim and he. really. yes. and he really motivated me and kept me focused and really kept me in the game and say, like, you know, keep going, keep practicing. you could do this. so by the time i got to fourth or fifth grade, you know, i was balling. yeah. you know, and so without his guidance i wouldn't have made it you know that far in playing basketball. but you know rudy he's like the neighborhood hero. he's at the rec at the rec. you know he chopping it up with everybody. and you know he just made everyone feel welcome. and that that was even before there was like a headquarters to even be at, you know. so it was just the rec. that's a public place to be. and so, you know, he just built community there. and, you know, i just felt at home and you've been there ever since, and i've been here ever since. and she's still balling. she's still balling. and yeah, we got to play ball then. so and you started when did you start? i started in sixth grade. i

started going to bessie carmichael for the first time. i didn't know anybody except for like my neighbor. and then i got introduced to united players by bqe. he was my mentor. may he rest in peace as well. he really introduced me to this. he pushed me out of my comfort zone because i was very much like a loner. didn't know anybody, i didn't i wasn't very open to being social with other people. but when i came here, he was like, go introduce yourself to everybody. like left me alone to go introduce myself and i did exactly that. and i mean the rest is history. it's like super fun. everything's cool. so i love it. and you've been with him since how many years now? i don't know, i think maybe 2009. that's amazing because that's when i went to sixth grade. yeah, she was a participant and

now she's a staff. yeah. but just just real quick, thank you for bringing up e. so eric, eric also is one of our staff who worked with us, who passed away, and tim was a mentor of mine. these are all filipino cats that we're talking about, the south of market. we're in here has over 120 year history of filipinos. so as you can see, right, it's filipino too, right there by heart. it's black, filipino, black filipino. you know it's filipino. we was black before we came right. but but but everybody they mentioned is actually been a part of the fabric with the love. tim was love, eric was love. and that's all they did was give out love. and look what we got here now. love, love. all right brother, when did you get involved with. i was at bell back in. oh four, and rudy wanted me to be a part of up. but unfortunately, due to, like, the gang culture i was a part of, i couldn't. because basically the people that i really didn't get along with was already in u.p. so it was kind

of like i couldn't be a part of up even though i wanted to. but due to stuff that transpired, i was just like, i can't do it, i can't do it. you know? and then how did i end up getting the job here? shout out to my mentor, mike brown. may he rest in peace. i got a call from mike brown. he asked me, was i open to working with kids still? because i was working with kids over there in my neighborhood and i said, yeah. and then he was like, call this man named rudy. and i was like, rudy. i'm like, i only know one. you know, one rudy in the city. so i happened to call rudy and then did an interview, and then i got hired down here, and i've been here for 12 years, and it's a blessing. it's a blessing to work with kids. you know? you a blessing, bro. to be a part, to just be a part of a positive environment. yeah. coming from a negative environment, to be a part of a positive environment is a blessing. yeah. you want to talk about that negative environment. negative environment was just growing up being a part of a neighborhood, you know, doing things to feel accepted. you know, not getting the right nurturing love at hom.

so you step out your comfort zone to go get it from friends or you know, to when you just want to be loved, bro. it don't matter what environment you're in. it don't matter if it's positive or negative because love can come from either environment. it's about what environment you choose that you feel like you can succeed in. and at the time, me being a negative thinker at the time due to my way of living, due to my environment inside my household, i chose a negative environment. yeah. so how did you what attracted you to want to come to up at that age? because it's hard for teenagers at times. it just seemed like a fun thing to do. like if i could, if i could go back in time, i think i probably would have been a part of up. but it was just like, you know, when you have to go there and then you still have to go back to your neighborhood and they're like, oh, you was over there with them. like, what are you doing hanging with them? like, you know, that type of stuff. so it was just more like chose a side as a kid. as a kid, i chose a side. and it was like to where i was from. but when you, if i can take it all back again, be honest with you. my message to the kids, it's okay to be the kid that get along with everybody. yeah. that's right. like, you know, it's okay to be that kid to be different and you can get along with

everybody without choosing a side that's real. yeah. hey, i just want to add this right. and it's based on a true story. brandon, when i first met him, didn't really want to be a part of anything but what he was doing. and he was caught up in that negative cycle right of the turf life, that death life, that money back and murder life. it was arrested development. but growing up now, you know his mindset has changed. he really wanted to get with our organization. when he was at bal, i used to try to get at him, but he was hardheaded, you know what i mean? he'd be in the gym shooting three pointers for money, you know what i mean? he was gambling and that's how i would get with him. i'll stand over there with him and chop it up because i come from the same cloth. yeah, but he was one of them youngsters, man. if he would not get involved in something, he'd have been dead or in prison. yeah, with that elbow. yeah. and look at him now. yeah. look what you mean. helping out the kids from neighborhoods that he had rivals from? yeah, on my mama and she in heaven. so, you know his his his mindset has changed. and, you know, i'm really proud of

all three of them. what they stand for and what they do for the people. yeah. is it because up is very relatable like rudy as opposed to other teen groups? you want to explain? yes. you know, you don't see too many people who look like you, who you know, talk like you, maybe dressed like you that are like walking a positive path. right? sometimes a lot of people are just like, you know, like, who cai look up to? right? and you know, kids, we embrace, encourage kids to take pride in their individuality. right. and sometimes kids are just lost and they don't know. they don't have any guidance. they don't have that guidance at home. i was fortunate enough to have two parents, you know what i mean? but not a lot of kids, you know, in this world have that, you know, or they do have two parents. one is just don't have the time or attention to give their kids and so i feel like we fill that void for them. you know what i mean? is it because

the community is i mean, it's the parents are too busy workin, so sometimes they kind of not around their children sometimes. so they don't have like, that kind of loving upbringing at times because they're so on that grind and hustle. yeah. my parents were on that grind and hustle. i felt like there was some gaps that i felt like they didn't feel for me. but then growing up, i also understood what they were like hustling for. that's right. and so and so like i've accepted that as i've grown older, but with some kids, you know, some kids, they have parents who, you know, who are like, you know, who are on drugs. you know what i mean? who are absent, who are not there. you know, some people are raised off love and some people are raised off survival. right? and so really, they're, you know, it's just kids trying to navigate their own lives. and sometimes they don't have that with their parents or their guardians or, you know. yeah. and that's where you, sharp girl stay sharp. big facts. yeah. and

that's where up comes in. you guys bring it out. you guys are the bridge that brings the families together. and you guys are kind of. well, you look at the name we're uniting players, right? and all players is people who are coming together who are doing something positive, productive for their people in the hood. right. you got united players and you got united haters. some people don't want to connect and get together and that's cool too. that's a part of life. yeah. but we choose man to live. we'd rather live than die. see, our whole thing is based on making it fashionable, making peace fashionable. right. and as vanessa was speaking, you know, most of us filipinos, we grow up right. i'm first generation, our parents, the way they show us, they love us is they out there grinding? most of them don't tell us they love us. they just do it. and you don't understand that. you know what i mean? till, like you said, you get older, then you realize why they was doing what they was doing. because my mom and dad, you know, they grow up. they ain't never told me to this day. and they both of them, you know, passed away. they didn't say it out loud. right. and so you

won't love if you ain't hearing it. you going to find it somewhere. yeah. so i was not i was even on the sidewalk on the porch. i was on the street at an early age. but all that time they was showing it by their actions. and now that they're gone, i understood. and now i know what they love was the way they was giving it to me. that's all filipino people was raised. that's true. my parents, my parents were like that too. but you said it very well, though, and that's why i felt you. that's real talk. thank you. yeah. with that said, how has this program evolved over the years since you started? i'm going to let them answer that. sure. so how has it evolved since you were evolved since you were a student and now you're a teacher? it's evolved a lot. like when i was younger, i wasn't, like emotionally, like prepared or like, knew what to do in situations where like, i was like lost or going through some things. i feel like now in the program, like we have us having training with the trauma

based intervention or trauma based relational intervention. yes. and a lot of letters on yeah, it's tbri basically in other words, what is that? can you explain like it's like a trauma based where like you, you're like repairing the bond that you have and like learning to like navigate through those emotions instead of like suppressing them or acting out against them. and i just feel like that is very helpful in today's like, age with the kids that we do have. and it's like a life skill that we're teaching them to take along the way. so they're not like acting up, acting out anywhere in the world. they can at least do it here with us in a safe space where we know how to, like, help them and give them like resources. and i think that's like the major change that i've seen so far. and, and the

community outreach that we do, we i mean, we did community outreach when i was in middle school, but i feel like we've, we've do we've done more now. yeah. and like even during like the pandemic, we were serving like the seniors. we were serving like the senior graduates, like when they couldn't walk the stage. we did a drive by. i think it's changed a lot in like a positive way. yeah. do you want to talk about the mental health part of it? to me, the key of our mission is to help them identify emotions and feelings, because if you can't identify emotions and feelings, if you can't identify it, it's like, how could you control something you can't identify? yeah. you know, and the key is that if you can get the kids to identify it, the younger they are, the better off they will be in the future. you know, it's kind of hard when you get when you get a high schooler and try to restore morals, identity, self-respect and stuff of that

nature. you know, like it's kind of harder. so to me, what i identify doing this work is if we can get installed in them at an early age, the better off they will be when they become adults. say that, then say that then. and can you explain, like the changes you've seen in the kids you got in the beginning to how they became later adults? yeah. so i just want to go off on what rhia was saying about trust based relational intervention. so that is a trauma informed approach to vulnerable youth that we serve who experience adversity and trauma in their lives. right. and so that consists of three main principles. that's empowering. connecting and connecting. so with that, that's our investment into our youth is taking delving in deeper into their lives. right. trying to trying to identify like why they moved, the way they move, why they talk, the way they talk,

why, you know, learning about their upbringing. right. and then identifying those factors, like brandon was saying and then being able to nurture those, nurture them where it's needed, you know, meeting them where they're at. and then you know, being able to transform their lives to where they can be better people, you know, into the world. and so i feel like when we instill those factors like risk, respect, you know, integrity and all that, when we see that translate into our kids and they're showing that and they're ending up teaching their siblings and, and showing you know, you see, you see something that you teach someone and they're actually, you know, putting it into action that's that's rewarding. like, you know, that you're doing the right thing and you know that you're staring them in the right path like beautiful. and man, i love my staff. i love y'all, you know what i mean? they are frontline soldiers, boots to the

ground. and they deal with this every day. yeah, right. you guys articulated it so well. and what y'all just said. you imagine us when we all grow up. we was taught not to cry. we was taught not to express how we feel. right. and when you grow up, you got to express what you feel. and you say, right. and if you do right, you get your ass whooped. you better not cry right. and so if you really think about it, man, our people, our black people, our brown people, way back in the days, we was the ones who cultivated all this, but it was kidnaped from us. and now, you know, you have people who are putting it into letters. but this is something our people always been doing from day one. it just got kidnaped. and so this is really natural for us to give out love and to give it back. yeah. and love ain't no soft word, you know what i mean? it's really spelled no. right. and so the things that we're that that we're learning, i'm still learning it and that they're

learning, we're learning from getting trained to teach these young kids who are growing up in a world full of hate. yeah. we winning. and you. right. that is what we have to do. install those values again because we ain't got them. and this is raising our kids. that's true. you dig what i'm saying? and whatever they scrolling through and they seeing. right. it's the soundbites. yeah. right. what do they call that when you go through there and it keeps coming back. the ads the algorithm. algorithm. no, the algorithm algorithm. right. if you're watching fights all the time and i like fights, but i know it's entertaining to me. i'm asking the little kid who's getting and he's seen it. that's all he's thinking, right? and as in brandon in your head, it's true. it's true. and so it's important that these letters that were taught that's already in our dna from way back in the days in the philippines or in africa, right, or whatever country you come from, or people been having this installed in them. that's why we're receptive to it, you know what i mean? and so when we're learning, we teach this. it's our duty. it takes the hood to say the hood. it takes us to teach our people the

truth, right? with the spirit of everything that our people, where we come from, for us to get by. because this world, man is toe up every day. it gets worse and worse. turn on the news. you see it. you know it's full of hate. and so man, i love what y'all do. y'all frontline soldiers. hearing them speak like this, i ain't used to seeing them speak like this. you know what i mean? yeah. now spitting game like that. that's why i talk about making peace fashionable. right? yeah. we making. we really making it happen in real life. and so man. and that's what makes us so, like, genuine and pure. because even us, we're still dealing with our own trauma, still trying to heal from it. and, you know, but at the same time, you know, we're helping others. we'll help. we're helping you deal with their own traumas and also helping them heal. and so i feel like that that feeds off of each other. and so, like, you know, heal people, heal people who say that, then what? heal people, heal people, man. healers need healing. man. my

brand is coming out soon, y'all. y'all go cop that i ain't lying. you know the crazy part is, yeah, the kids feel like they need us, but they don't know we need them more than they need us. ooh, beautiful. yeah. that's fire right there. true. i'm gonna explain. it's just like we can be having a bad day. but when we come to work, the kids uplift us. the kids, like, you know, take us out of a certain mode and put us in a higher spirit. yeah, spiritually, it don't matter if we play with them, if we laugh with them. play a pick up game of basketball or just crack jokes with them. it's just the interaction you feel me can take our mind off something we have going on outside of work, you know? and then it just put us at a peaceful place. yeah, yeah. kids is medicine true? true. we got we got cats who are coming home out of these penitentiaries who've been going 25, 35, even 45 years straight. right. and they're coming back and giving to our community. but what they fail to realize is what brandon just said. the kids is actually bringing life to them. their medicines to these cats. right. and so, yeah, man, you know, shouts out to all them young

kids out there, do you want to talk about big kid? do you want to talk about that program you do with visiting the juvie juvenile juvie? and you can speak on that. oh, so, so what's big for us is we have a reentry program, right? and right now we have we connected with the justice department at at juvenile, and we got two we got two caseworkers and both the caseworkers are lifers that came home from doing a lot of time in jail based off of making a rational decision, not being able to control their emotions and their feelings. so i think it's kind of big. when we got lifers coming home to connect with the kids in juvenile, and they don't just connect with the kids in juvenile, they come to the they show up at the middle school, they show up at the elementary school. they go to high schools and talk. they go to city college and talk. and it's just like, you got to kill the pipeline, man. the elementary to the penitentiary pipeline has to be killed. and the only way to kill it is people that actually been through it. because the people that been through it know how to kill it, know how to attack it.

it's like a tree. you look at the branches and you think, those are the problems? no, it's the root. what is the root of the problem? and that goes back to tbri being able to help people identify and control their feelings and emotions. yeah. so how did you guys start that program where you go this partnership with like the different jails to be able to talk to the inmates and change their lives and stuff like that. how do we start that? yeah. how do you start that was locked up in there with them. right. and so you know, that's our people. you know what i mean. and accountability is very important. you cross that line. and like beretta said back in the days you do e crime, you do the time. i come from that school. and so a lot of guys who are stand up cats who come home that we know who we've been incarcerated with, right, or we go back in there and we talk to them. they know about what we do because, you know, the streets is really inside them penitentiaries. so they know what's happening out here on the ground and they see all their people. right. who's out here putting in work? that's why i always take pictures, you know

what i mean? with all the homies, when they come together and we're talking about cats. when brandon was mentioning the two dudes, you're talking about a adamu and a kiwi. them dudes, man. when enemies. wow, right. and they're not even from out here. they're from southern california. and so we get all these guys together, north and the southerners, others, right. blacks, whites come together and they take pictures and it spreads everywhere. and so people want to be a part of something that's working. that's winning. yeah. they want to be a part of this player stuff. you know, it's that medicine man. yeah. yep. it's free to shoot. you pay for that. no it's free. come on man, how it's going to be on a shelf in a minute. diversify your portfolio man. that's what 40 taught me. how big is up at this point. shoot. tell them about it. how big is up at this point. how big is you p0i mean we have a headquarters here. i mean what do you mean how big. like it's worldwide, right. like you have philippines. you have other

places. yeah. one in new york, one in the philippines. am i missing any we in africa? yeah. you know what i mean. hawaii, baltimore. south. south bronx. yeah, yeah. how does that make you? good? god is good. god is good. how does that make you feel to see it? like, start from balboa to 30 years later? yeah, man, it feels really good to know that, you know, what started from the people, from the youth has blossomed and blew up, man, to go everywhere around this world and to touch people. yeah, yeah, it's amazing. that is amazing. and you're doing god's work and like. but why do you or why do youth join gangs anyways. i mean it's different now than it was back then, but it's almost the same. like, why do they join like, gangs? i mean, to be accepted. yeah. to be loved. it's more about acceptance and love. i mean, i can't speak for like as a whole. i can ask you, i can tell you why i did it. it was because i

didn't feel loved at home. yeah, my daddy did. 16 in the state. my mama raised four kids by herself, and i had the type of mom that go to work, bust her butt, come home, pay the bills, and it's like, have my house clean. but it wasn't like helping me go over my homework. it wasn't like the nurturing, the nurturing part didn't didn't come. you know, i love her to death, but the nurturing part didn't come. you know? so i ran to the streets and didn't get it there either. yeah, truth be told, didn't get it there. but that's what i was looking for. yeah. acceptance and love. you feel me? yeah. and i think a lot of kids just. it comes from making rational decisions. like, it's like, man, i don't feel the love inside the home. so let me go try to get it out here. and the whole time when you're out there, you're getting manipulated. you know, it's like manipulation is heartache. it's losing friends. it's bullet holes. it's doing stupid stuff. it's jail. it's like, you know. yeah. but to piggyback off what you said, i think it's just acceptance and love. when it comes down to it, you want to be a part of something? yeah. no

matter if it's positive or negative. just wanting to be a part of something. yeah, yeah, yeah, they definitely just want to have, like a sense of belonging and like feeling like they have some purpose. like if you ask the kids right now, like, you know, where do you see yourself or you know, what's your future like? all of them just want to, like, get money and like, you know and have and like have a good life, good, stable life. they just want a good job, you know, have a house, whatever they had, have food on their table. really. that's all what they really wan. and so we try to strive to, you know, push them to their highest level. you know, some kids will say like, you know, i'm only going to make it to high school. but with us being here, like, you can go to college. yeah. you know what i mean? like, you can be bigger than that, but but it's just the simple things that they want, really, is to just be able to, you know, have a good life. yeah. that's true. and how do you explain to the parents or tell them what the signs could be, if that these kids want to join gangs or anything? i've

never been in a situation where a student would want to join a gang, but if it ever had to come down to that, it would just be a simple. it would be like a check in and like, show them like that. the actions that they're taking where it could possibly lead. and you know, and like the resolutions that we could do to prevent that type of stuff going down that road is very is very dangerous. you you never know what's at the end of that road. and, and your life could be cut short when you, when you do those type of things. and i definitely think it's just, just that extra support and the extra, like love and showing that there's a positive side instead of having to join like a gang for just a sense of belonging or, you know, i think they also probably joined for like protection or like, like he said, like no love there. and they find it out there, but it's

really not real love. it's just for that moment. yeah. and i think that's the best way we could do it. just set up a plan and maybe take them out and see a different world. other than, you know, the street life. yeah. what other effective strategies do you guys have for to help the youth stay out of trouble? like, maybe it's not gang. maybe it's not gang life. maybe it's like, yeah, go ahead. just helping them identify their self. a lot of kids like when you when you're in middle school, high school like you lost. like you're trying to find your own identity, you know, and to interact with them. it's like it's more it's just having a conversation. it's one you being a mentor or you being older. you open up to them and get them to open up. it don't matter if it's like just a quick check in. if it's a i'm coming up to your school bringing you lunch, or if it's after school and we're running a boys group, or we run a boys group at at school during school hours, it's just as far as just checking in, helping

them identify their self, you know, and letting them know like you're not alone and you're not the first person that's going to deal with this issue, nor will you be the last to deal with this issue. so when it come up, we help them deal with it. so when they come up and you become in high school and you see a peer dealing with it, you can help them and walk them through the process. yeah. is it and it's not like it's like kind of like a 24 hour job, right? oh yeah. we get calls at night too. when we're at home i get i get calls, i get like for therapy, like i'm gonna get real for therapy. a lot of kids, y'all gonna laugh, but they call me at nine, 10:00. tell me. jump on the game. let's play madden. let's play twok. like that's therapy. yeah, yeah. you know, like that's really therapy. that's the fact that they feel comfortable even calling you after hours and telling you, come on, let's jump on a game. let's play. yeah. you know that. to me that's a form of therapy. you know, it's like. or if they just calling it can be calling like, man, i'm dealing with the issue. it's 10:00 and i'm dealing with an issue. or could you uber me here? i'm stuck. i'm stuck outside. could you uber me here or. i'm at home. i ain't got no food. could you. could you uber eats me some food, like all that is therapy, bro. and

it's comfortability. i want the kids to be comfortable to call me because we're humans. we just don't deal with a 9 to 5. a 9 to 5, okay? it intensify after 9 to 5. i learned that from big dog because after 9 to 5, when the sun go down, that's what it's lights, camera action. yeah. real talk. that's community. big facts. community. right. 24 seven 365 baby. yeah. so speaking of community, like how have you worked with like, the city, were you working directly with the city to help keep up alive or working within that partnership with the city to help you guys with your program? so what i learned doing this work is it's important in anything you build is relationships. yeah. right. and so having a city relationships is important. they can get you in places and doors where you can't get right. i used to hate the police and i had a reason why. but now some of the police, i hold them accountable. when we

work together because they work for us. just like, you know, our whole thing is about safety and prevention. of course you're going to need them. it's diplomatic to have them at the table with you. right. and some of them dudes who i met now were officers became cool. you know, some of my best friends. the chief is my partner. yeah. yeah, you know what i mean? and so i learned about relationships and having to build in order for us to get what we need to get, especially in the neighborhood and area we're in. it's important to have those relationships. yeah. you know, i'm trying to build bridges, not walls. yeah. you know, and at the same time, if there's city departments or people who are funders who are not with the mission or our movement, they're not going to miss them altogether. man. like the hiv virus, bro. yeah. you know what i mean? yeah. i'm for real about what we do. we are not no sellouts, you know what i mean? we are for real. we are here. our boots are on the ground. you know, we make sure. i make sure as an ed, no matter if it's the mayor, the supervisor, whoever everybody's being held accountable because we are the

people we elect them to work for us. you understand what i'm saying? and so i want to make it real clear, you know what the city departments and all them who's in action, they're all part of that chess board that that's on the table that we all need each other to make things work. yeah, i mean, they collab with you. they do. they collab with you when you do the gun buyback program, you want to talk about the gun buyback program? sure. i mean, the gun buyback was started 2012, i believe, when sandy hook happened. right. and so y'all know sandy hook or anyway, from that point, there was people who wanted to figure out how to get rid of guns without having to go into all the red tape. and so the first monday that i had was able to get didn't even come from the city. it came from dispensaries in the neighborhood and district six. we got the most dispensaries, and they was willing to put their money up. and so we got that. but when it started working, we had to build relationships with certain organizations to make it happen. i can't just get a gun. you pull

up and give me a pistol and you know, i'm an ex-felon. i can't i can't even own a gun. and so i had to get the right, proper people to do that. who was there? it was the gun range people from sfpd. so they jumped on board. i got the mamas who lost their kids to gun violence. right? i got ex-felons who did life sentences. we got the youth. we got all the pieces on the table to make it work. and now we've been getting over thousands of guns off the streets and destroying them. yeah, the number one killer right now in america for 19 years and younger are gun violence, suicide. right. domestic violence, black on black crime. brown on brown crime. a lot of people don't even know, man. how y'all was talking about the regulate their emotions and their feelings. right. first thing they do is go pick up a gun. they don't even know how to have a conversation with a woman when they argue and they just knock down, you know, and the number one rate of people growing, you know what culture is demographic is asians. is it. yeah. because,

you know, a lot of asians are getting robbed. that's true. they getting beat up. so they going to buy guns to protect themselves. get a gun. get a gu. protect yourself. they get the gun. but no. nobody tell them man. you got to put it in a safe lock. or when you get mad how you regulate your emotion, your feelings and guess what? when they get mad, they go right over and get their pistol man, go kill their wife, or they go to work and kill everybody at their job. yeah. so the high rate man of asians then rose up from gun violence, even though you're buying the gun to protect you and your family, you actually destroying your whole family and your community. wow. you know, so that's where the mental health comes in. like y'all doing the social emotional learning how to regulate everybody. we're all humans. we going to feel something. but how you going to deal with your feelings and your emotions when somebody makes you mad? yeah. you know how to go man. you know girl get you mad. your wife get you mad or your kid get you mad. you mad. you didn't worked all day. you upset and you, man, i'm going to go get my pistol. look at road rage, man. people going

crazy, man. they follow you all the way home. you know what i mean? and so? so it's a real high of mental health going on right now. that's true. do you want to talk about how how violence has evolved from. i feel like it was what was different because we're almost the same age, like physical and still physical, maybe. but now i feel like it's more mental. you want to talk about that? yeah. so yeah, i mean, you know, mental health is it's different because before you would just fight it out. so i don't think they do that no more. i feel like just it's like more mental. you make fun of each other, then everyone will gang up on that one person. it just messes up the bullying. the difference, the difference between the two is back in our day, right? like it's bullying, but it's only like 4 or 5 people. so if we fight only three, four people, this before the phones and stuff. yeah, yeah. only three, four people. then it's word of mouth. yeah. it intensified due to cyberbullying is i can be picking on vanessa, but now 50 to 100 people seen it. yeah. you feel me? then word of mouth spread and then a video. go

viral, you know, and then it's like, okay, now back, just go back to the tbe trying to identify emotional feelings. so now, i mean i'm more embarrassed because now you post a video of me up, now everybody can see a post of just one high school seeing it, and it's spreading through one high school. now, all the high schools in the city can see it because it's a video posted. right? so then that intensified the hurt, the anger. and then it's more like, man, how could i go get even how could i, how could i go get my lick back, you know, opposed to back in our era? it was just hard. we fight, we squabble. word of mouth. who won? he can say he won. i can say i won, but it's no. and it's just. all right. it gets swept under the rug. and then. and then you got a gun. you got access to guns where they're everywhere. you can make them off the computer. now. you got ghost guns, right? yeah. and you got war weapons. now you ain't got just regular the 38, you know what i mean? with the five bullets in them. you got something, man? with a clip in it and a switch, and you pop that thing, man. you gonna knock everybody down in this room with one squeeze of the

trigger, right? but i want to be real clear, though, jeremy. i am not against the second amendment. you got the right man to bear your arms. if somebody man runs up in your crib or harms your family, you got the right to protect you and your family. by all means. i'm not trying to say i'm getting rid of all guns. if i had a wand around this world and could do it all at one time because america got more guns here twice or triple times than we got people, i'd do that. but the reality is there's guns everywhere. that's true. you might be sitting on one. yeah, i might be. yeah, i feel i feel something. so for y'all like how has the experience of working. like what will you take with you for the rest of your lives working here and being a participant? would i take with me for the rest of my life, your life long lessons? i mean a lot a lot. you know, standing on your principles. you know, being true to yourself, you know, not selling your soul. you know, just being standing on your

toes. you know, standing on your ten toes, spreading love. just moving with the spirit of love. always like not operating off your ego and your pride and, you know, just spreading awareness and just being mindful. yeah. how about you? you. i'm a firm. i'm a firm believer of you're a product of the environment you choose. so by me coming over here, it was more of the family environment. i enhanced. i embraced it because i didn't have it growing up. you know, to a certain extent, i didn't have it growing up. so it's more of like the family atmosphere of it. the, the, the it takes a village to save it, to save a child like, you know, to raise a child like that's real. like, you know, because it's like when you're out there, you you can, like, get cold hearted because you're living in survival mode, not off love. you know, when i came here back in 2012, it was more like, damn, this is a nurturing environment. this is

love. like this is love. this is where people going to hold you accountable. people going to call you on your stuff, people going, people want what's best for you and people going to push you to do what's best for you. the key to it is pushing you to do what's best for you as a staff. if y'all pushing each other to do what's best for you, it ain't no doubt in my brain that we're doing the same thing for these kids. yeah. you know, and at the end of the day, those who control the kids mind control the future. it ain't no doubt in that hell. it ain't no doubt in that those who can control the kids mind control the future. rap songs and stuff that they listen to at times they control the kids brains and you see what the kids do. gang culture, pick up guns, shoot guns, ride around in groups, you know, and do that type of stuff. so i just feel like as far as here, what this has done to me, family atmosphere helped me stand on principles. morals helped me gain confidence in myself. not just in the kids, but confidence in myself and actually pushed me to actually want better for myself. my kids

come to the program with me. it was beautiful, like, you know, like beautiful. my kids come here with me. of course, if i, i would, i would always want my kids to be a part of something positive. you know? and due to the fact i made the wrong decision by not in high school, by not choosing it ain't no way in hell i'm going to let my kids do the same thing and make the same mistake i made. fax. that's beautiful. big facts about yourself. i think they all had such amazing points and i agree with that. i, i definitely also want to say like empathy and compassion. i feel like like everyone goes through some things and like, and that's oka. and just continuing to move with the spirit of love through everything. and, and that's, that's really it. and speaking of the spirit of love, how does religion play a part in if any? and you guys rule? i feel like that religion and believing in

something within this kind of like community always is very strong. i feel like it don't matter if you pray to allah. it don't matter if you prays to god. it don't matter what god you prays to because to each his own. but it is a god. you feel me? it is a god. and god woke us up this morning. god put us all on the same page and god bring us together collectively every wednesday to have staff meeting here based off for the kids. it all comes down to for the kids, you know, and spiritually. spiritually, you can feel the vibe. you can tell when somebody's vibe off based off body language, based off being able to read the room based off, oh, he acting different today. now let me go reach out to him. yeah. hey. how you doing today? you need help. you need a hug. you straight? how can i help you? i can tell your vibe off. and when you do a staff member like that, or even with the kids like that, that just let you know you're loved. yeah. feel me? so when you pay spiritually, it's just about being loved, you

know? and that's going back to what we talked about before. everybody want to be loved. people make decisions based off of wanting to be accepted and who don't want to be accepted by love. yeah, i'll speak on that. like difficult times. and how does religion like it seems like people go through really difficult times become really closer to god. yeah. so to me, religion is a terminology and word that i feel is something i can't relate with because i've been through a lot of different religions, whether it was raised as a catholic or went to the kingdom halls, or even studied with the noi. right? i believe it's about a relationship with a higher power. like you said, there is a god. jesus christ is my lord and savior, straight up 100 million. that's who i accep. and to each his own. like be said, you know what i mean. some people serve man, you know, the

moon or the sun or the devil as my savior, jesus christ, i believe man that's. and i know for a fact that's what put me in a position where i'm at now with my purpose on this planet. and i'm very honored. i'm very honored that i'm very that i'm in a position i know where my purpose in my life is because you got to have direction. yeah. and it gave me life. it gave me direct. this is my life. saved my job no more. yeah. this is my life. all day, every day. you know what i mean? yeah. 365 24 seven. i live it, i breathe it, but i thank god every morning when i wake up and at night before i go to sleep. and many times in the middle, you know what i'm saying? and thank him and honor him when it's good and when it's bad. yeah. and so from the beginning, when all this transpired, you'll be surprised what i have seen god done to evolve the evolution of what up is now, you know, i'm a cat from the south of market who come from the trenches, who now has

an organization. i used to. i used to be the leader of my gang in this neighborhood. we had a little gang, man. we were colored like this burgundy with skulls on the back. little kids all coming up. but i was the leader and i always ran. i always led with passion, you know what i mean? and i always led man with that spirit. yeah. and to this day, even when we started back october in 2000, i mean, 1994, we always prayed with all the thugs. that's who jesus was with. he was with the thugs. he was with the killers, the robbers, the steelers, the prostitutes. that's what the whole bible, the story is. bible basic instructions before leaving earth. that's the manual of life. and that's what he did, man. he gave the spirit to the thugs and all them. and they wrote that book the best selling book that's out that is free, that most people don't even open. see, we all guarantee one thing in life with two, pay your

taxes. and guess what else to die? because while death, life has no meaning. and if you do not have that spiritual food because you got people walking all around there, you see it. they alive, right? but they're not living. you have to have some spiritual food in your life because man can't live on bread alone. man, y'all got me sound like a preacher up in this camp. you know what i mean? but all the way from the beginning, jeremy, we praying in. and to this day. what do we do when we have our wednesday meetings? we pray in and we pray out. come on, man, it's always been god, god, god, the biggest gangster on this planet. because what's his name? start with b jesus christ g. god. yeah. that's why we're. that's why you're so blessed, rudy. and you're so blessed to have you. not a place i'm blessed, you know. and prayer really works. god is real. i've. you know, i've prayed. i don't go to church, but my relationship with god is what's important to me. my

relationship with my ancestors is more important to me. but like i've seen my prayers manifest into real life, and so just having that faith in god just keeps me going and keeps me blessed. amen, amen. you ain't sitting on a gun. you sitting on a bible because this is actually what we have. our service in this room. yeah, i can feel it on my mama. she in heaven. and speaking of that, like so, uncle rudy, how much has uncle rudy made an impact in your lives? i ain't uncle hold up, man, i ain't that old yet. hold on. i still outrun everybody in this room. i hear people call you uncle rudy. so i'm. yeah, i ain't gonna. i'm gonna say he touched more lives than you can imagine. more lives than you can imagine. and mine based off just being there for me, giving me opportunity. give me a second chance, you know, to work with kids, you know? and me working with kids helped me regrow my

heart. so i don't even like adults. i'm a kid. i don't like adults. adults are manipulative. adults are conniving, and adults can can be very misleading. as far as kids, i feel like the kids can't do no harm for me. the kids can be corrected and i feel like it's a blessing. he gave me opportunity and i took it and ran with it, took it and ran with it. i'm forever blessed and, you know, just just having a positive person in your life, you know, you can be feeling down and you can go have a conversation with him. you're gonna leave out that room with high spirits. you feel me with high spirits? yeah. he's just based off the message he give you. yeah, he helped me a lot. he helped me a lot. and i'm very grateful. it's beautiful. far from appreciative. far from unappreciative. yeah. it's beautiful. yeah. yeah. uncle rudy, he's always be speaking life into me, into everybody. and i feel like, you know that

that really does take me to a higher place when i feel really down and stuff. and i feel like, you know, you give everybody an opportunity to, like, reinvent themselves and to be able to, you know, be a brand new person every day. and that, like you, you don't even like, look at the past of, like, who you used to be or who they used to be. you just see the greater good into people. and i feel like, you know, everybody's here for a reason. and you see exactly why. and like, yeah, like you've just been there. you be there when i'm down and out when i'm up and happy. even my mama call you sometimes, you know, you know it's all love all the time. you got the flip phone flip i want that call. yeah, yeah, i like that. thank you. thank you for your kind words. awesome.

beautiful. so, i mean, what would that said? like seeing how many lives you change. what are your what is your hopes for the future of united players? and do you have any other upcoming like works coming in like more partnerships with like what do you what's your hopes for the for up 30 more years to eternity for life by more buildings, by more buildings, maybe have our own recreational center one day so we can have our own creator up high school. oh yeah. you know how to play high, higher. that'd be cool. take a more global. that's right. yeah. wherever god takes us, that's where we're going and keep leading. so what i've learned from this, this conversation is that there is a definitely there's a definite future for the youth with you guys as the leaders and the of our community, especially soma. and you're in good hands with rudy. i wish they had this when i was

young. they didn't have that when i was growing up in in the east bay, like near richmond, vallejo, hercules. i mean, we had a lot of gang violence, and i had a lot of friends that were also, like affected by gangs and didn't make it out of their their teenage years. so it would have been beautiful to have that. so i'm so thankful that just for our community and for just for life, that we have something like up, because we didn't have that growing up. and to know that there's an organization like this that's going global, it's being recognized by everybody. yeah. and you're saving lives. i mean, there's still people that are going to fall through the cracks, but you guys are doing your very best to catch them. and so i'm very thankful to have learned from each of your stories here from everybody. definitely feel the love and just thankful. next time we do this, we'll have like a lechon and lumpia. we'll do a dinuguan. thank you for having us. yeah. thank you, thank you, thank you for letting our voice be heard. yes. let me phrase it that way.

yeah, well, thank you for being a voice for the community. it's beautiful. so. yeah. thanks again. for. . >> ready to go. thank you very much. i'm going to ring the gavel. the