it is a new date for the department with new leadership, but your imprint on this department will last for generations, so thank you for that. >> thank you very much, commissioner cleveland. commissioners? >> your mic -- your microphone is not operating. >> commissioner hardeman, please ? >> thank you. >> i will probably give more accolades to you over the years, the way i see you doing your job , so i will not go into complementing you. i think your time has spoke for itself, your reports, how you have devoted yourself. above and beyond the call of duty, i notice, vince nolan, was that vince nolan, and his obituary, he claimed as a person before he died that there was something about him that he would say was a highlight. he showed up and for all these people who want to be firefighters to come to these meetings and look so sharp, all dressed up in the dark suits and outfits, they are showing up. they are showing interest, and the thing that i'm sure, it has not bothered you, but has been difficult for you as i see it, seeing all the resumes and talking to just about everyone in the a

at the department leaked it. i wants to ask, given the fact that state law enforcement had a spectacular record of success in terms of getting restitution for student borrowers, who, again, had their funds misappropriated, shutting down deceptive practices, and again, as the new york ag, minnesota ag, illinois ag, connecticut ag, they've all been doing this work collaboratively with the federal government, that's the rational for the department to shut off that flow of information regarding student loan servicers, which has been standard operating procedures for decades? >> congressman-- >> i asked you a question and we don't have much time, explain the decision you made to shut off this information to people who are law enforcement. they're investigating things like fraud-- i mean, so please explain that decision and that memo. >> i will be happy to, but i want to comment to the oig report. >> i didn't ask you about that. >> the findings of which we have all, we have addressed, they were for a period of time tha

the san francisco police department has been contacted by departments across the nation, other police departments wanting to imlate our -- emulate our strategies to reduce crime on the streets. so what are we looking to do? we want to continue to see a reduction in our violate crimes and our crimes and aggravated assault s have been down and part is adding a centralized investigations unit. we added two new units to address crime trends. those are the robbery and property details. the details look at city wide trends wells those conducted by sophisticated crime networks. our results have been rather good at this point. this is year to date february to this year. homicides show a 38% reduction, aggravat aggravated assault show 38% reduction and the trends are valid to this day. we have reductions in each of those areas. our violent crime, we've seen a significant drop in violent crime on the side of gun related violence due to investment in our crime, gun and intelligence center. we use intelligence and community engagement to identify unlawfully used firearms especially those used to

and we put together what were the requirements from the fire department, what did the fire department need to get out of any potential development here? and also working with the planning department, what are the potentials for housing? so the prospectus was issued in january. and bids were due march 1. we received four proposals on march 1. we convened a team of city experts, including many from the fire department, to assist us in reviewing those proposals. and today we have a recommendation for you. so of the proposals received, of those four, shown here in rank order, related california, pres presidio bay ventures, and they all made competitive proposals for the city to consider. the first ranked bidder was far and away by more than 20%. financially, the best opportunity for the city. from a city development perspective, and the opportunity within the block, the related proposal was also far and away because of the creative approach they used to combine two projects into one project. and so we'll explain that in a little more detail in a second. so today i'm here to seek your inpu

this is a list of general orders , department orders, department bulletins, penal code sections that all give the officers guidance in what can and cannot be released to the public. so here is, again, a synopsis of what the department, how the department sees discipline as it relates to some of these issues with releasing information, and these are some of the ones that we generally look at. the department general order is the general rules of conduct, and in there it is described that a member shall obey all written orders, policies and procedures of the department and probably obey all lawful, written, or verbal directives of superiors. the san francisco disciplinary penalty and referral guidelines for sworn members describes these violations may be classed a violations which is the most serious violation of misconduct. as it relates to these topics, we have conduct, it constitutes a felony in the release of collected information, which is one of our databases of law enforcement, and then unauthorized use and dissemination of confidential information as it relates to this, that cou

both of the department of commerce and the department of justice have withheld key documents and refused to answer legitimate questions. ross and i exchanged several letters last week. we accommodated some of his concerns and thankfully he accommodated some of ours. i appreciate that, mr. secretary. based on these agreements i expect secretary ross to fully answer all of our questions about the census and not avoid our questions based on the meritless claim that there is a separate litigation going on. and with thathat i'm very pleased to have the secretary stand, please. good morning, chairman cummings. rep. cummings: i'm going to swear you in first. i apologize. thank you very much. swear and affirm the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? thank you very much. let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative and you may be seated and you may proceed. sec. ross: good morning, chairman cummings. ranking member jordan and members of the committee. thank you for inviting me to testify. i would also think the cha

have you reviewed the department's policies? is there a plan to figure out how we can provide those necessary resources to local law enforcement to retain and hire law enforcement office? >> yes. i think the problem is really a function of these nationwide injunctions imposed by district court judges. this is a fairly recent phenomenon. the old practice in law was that if a district court judge issued a decision, the judge could redress the grievances of the parties before the court. but now courts are granting nationwide injunctions. as a result if a district court in northern california, which is i think the court that may have been involved here, grants an injunction, they enjoin the grant program nationwide. now, one of the reasons -- and lee can correct me if i'm wrong about this. but one of the reasons we were able to get out the burn jag grants was there had been a district court in chicago that had enjoined it nationwide. we went to the seventh circuit. they required the court to reduce its injunction just to its jurisdi

we've raised this issue with the planning department almost a year ago and to date the planning department has not articulated how this can be constructed in the year yard of the mary vale antiques building. the planning department needs to address its own legal standards for class 32 exemptings. -- exemptions. this class 32 categorical exemption can be used only when i seen with certainty the proposed project will not have a significant affect on the environment. this is a high legal threshold. the city must conduct the appropriate level of environmental review. simply put, there is an exempting. categorical exemptings are not abs lut. the board of supervisors are asked to review this. >> supervisor: no one on the rost roster i will open up public comment comment for those who are in support of the appeal. if you're here to support either of the appeal you will have an opportunity to come forward now. you have up to two minutes. for those who oppose, there will be an opportunity later in the hearing. at the time those that support please come forward. first speaker, please. >> seems like

inspector general in the department that the departments on acting general counsel. a nearly unprecedented attempt to put a senior department official in a position to police decisions he was personally involved in making caret once again, we've not received a response to that question. this is only a partial list of actions your department has failed to justify and questions refused to answer behind each of these unjustified acts as an unanswered questions from their students, educators, and taxpayers across the country who are waiting for answers and only can speculate as to the reason behind the actions. they deserve to know what the department is not acting in the are takingst fiercely the federal government's responsibility to ensure that all americans have froms to quality education child care, early learning to college and career. madam secretary, i look forward to the opportunity to discuss important issues under your department which are so vital to our nation's future. i yelled to the ranking member for the purpose of an opening statement. -- i yield to the

ensure people inside the department and outside the department understand what equity means from a department point of view and dr. colfax has explained that and disparity. it's important that as a department we articulate what we mean and repeat it because i don't think people learn the first time they hear equity versus disparity. i think you continue to intertwine and make sure intermly we speak from the same and externally people understand that and it's a process. it take time but we need to put it out quickly. thank you very much and thank you dr. colfax for your definition. >> thank you. i had one or two questions going back to the emerging needs. commissioner sanchez has articulated very well the reason we can ask these questions is because of the fine work the department has done and particularly the presentation of the budgets because we can get down to what the issues are we're able to understand in the text where some issues are. if we go back to c5 and the registration process i'm still looking for a more definitive reason why we need to spend $14,000 per employees reclassifying

department of ageing and difficult services, department of children -- adult services, department of children and their families, and the department of housing and community development. so just quick timeline of what i highlighted. the sogi ordinance passed in 2016. compliance plans were due the following year. my office became engaged through the city administrator's office in january 2018 to support departments with their first reports which were due in july of 2018, and then, that brings us to today where departments were also asked to submit a six-month plan for both their annual reports as well as this current fiscal year. so again, our work is really about providing guidance to support departments. we also worked with departments to remove sex questions for nonmedical process, which is a two-step process in the department which would allow us to better track trans folks, but we found through our housing programs asking that level of information really only made sense in our health services and often was a really difficult question to ask somebody, and so we got those concerns

and so even more thinking within the department was done about that over that time. that was a matter of weeks. and then when the report came -- and it came approximately midday on friday -- the deputy attorney general and i and our staffs worked closely for the balance of that day, saturday and sunday. >> i didn't want to interrupt you. did the white house see the report before you released your summarizing letter? has the white house seen it since then? have they been briefed on the contents beyond what was in your summarizing letter to the judiciary committee? >> i've said what i'm going to say about the report today. i've issued three letters about it. i was willing to discuss the historic information of how the report came to me and my decision on sunday. but i've already laid out the process that is going forward to release these reports hopefully within a week. i'm not going to say anything more about it until the report is out and even has a chance to look at it. >> i think there is some relevant questions that i do hope you could answer today, sir. on the qu

in the department of homeland security and the department of labor. in 2018, these teams saw significant prosecution results including increases of 10%, 75% and 106% in cases filed, defendants charged and defendants convicted. i wear another hat sitting on the judiciary committee. and through that committee's efforts in the last congress, we passed several pieces of legislation working with the department specifically to close loopholes within the criminal code and make it easier for the department to go after these folks that are exploiting children and trafficking human beings. this is modern day slavery. it's important for me as a member of this committee and i suspect every member of this committee. i think i can say that we all want to see sex and human trafficking eradicated in this country and want to make sure that your department has the tools that you need to do so. director wray was here recently. i directed some questions specific to this issue as well and would like for you to address for the benefit of all of us as we put pen to paper in

about anything within those departments. i'm beginning t going to do a bf presentation. i'll cover briefly what's the process by which department request and receive approval for position authority. al bia bit about the data regarg the few departments. the h.r. detector wishes she could be here, today, as you know it first day of mediation with m.e.a. she was uncle able to b -- unabo be here for this presentation. as director brown mentioned, the charter gives authority around human resources matters to multiple entities. you can see that civil service commission develops the rules, defines policies and has an appellate rule in terms of hearing appeals. the charter gives great deal authority in terms of appointing officers, if terms of hiring and firing employees. the administration of the human resources and civil services rules, policies and ensuring we fulfill the charter. we all work closely together to ensure that merit principles are followed. i want to talk little bit about what the process is by which a department re

i talked to the sheriff's department and the police department who both stated they're working on implementing a policy related to gun violence restraining orders. secondly, relating to domestic violence restraining orders, the restraining party is required to surrender any guns that they have in their possession, and the sheriff district attorneys or police department tracks that. they'll follow up with an individual to ensure they surrender the firearm to achieve compliance. youth and vocational services. these are provided significantly by oewd, rec park and children, youth, and their families. in the report, we have sort of an overview of all of the initiatives and programs and support for each vocational training that includes skill certifications and stem in other heidi manned industries like nursing and medical care. and we also have breakdowns of participants by supervisor district. driver safety. so the sfmta in their strategic plan has stated a goal to achieve a 5% decrease in accidents per month. m.t.a. has already completed the installation of operator enclosures on muni buses and

the san francisco police department is the 14th largest police department in the nation, and we have a duty to reduce the number of lgbtq youth sleeping on the streets each night. june is lgbtq pride month, with a celebration of how far this movement has come around the world. san francisco police department are dedicated to excellence in law enforcement and to treatment of people of diversities and ethnicities around the city. i ask for your favorable declaration of approval in our request. for you, i have a copy of the patch, so go on here as well as a mock up shirt of what it would look like when it goes on everyone's uniform. >> may i congratulate you for your -- your creativity and your willingness to move forward on issues like this. this is great. are we being asked for an action here? we have to take action in order to modify -- >> clerk: we need a motion and a second, correct. >> i'll make a motion. >> i second. >> president hirsch: all right. any comment from commissioners on the motion? >> commissioner dejesus: i -- i'm sorry. >> president hirsch: commissioner mazzucco? >>

and police department. so we do know it's an issue and we know it's a difficult issue to both discern and take on but we want to avoid the question and discussion and we're make steps to make the situation better. we realize the status quo is not good enough when it comes to this issue. what we plan to do is introduce and articulate our road map of how we plan to the issue and comes up to respecting safety and all we serve and doing everything in our power that bias whether implicit or explicit in our policing is not a driving factor in this issue. with that there's six teams commander ewings and captain ford will talk about and it begins with constitutional policing, training, oversight, accountability, community partnership. those are the six teams. several of these teams focus on really collecting, analyzing, using, sharing data. others focus on developing our people in training and accountability, community partnerships and developing relationships we know will drive some of the cultural change we'll ne

the department has 1,886 full-duty

thanks to the fire, police, department of emergency management and sheriff's department for continued suppo support. dave, of course, a personal friend is th the straw that stis the drink and sweeps up so no one sees the mess left behind. a hand for ron ross. he is a founder of the san francisco history association. ron is the second longest attendee after donna. this is his last wreath hanging. he is retiring after forming it is 1982. we also want to thank ed ruskin and the m.t.a. for the streetcar. to my good friend who is the performethe prfor making this h. a big hand for big lee. is the mayor here? >> you look great. you look fantastic. our mayor is here. she is a native daughter of the city who happens to be the mayor. the pride of the high school. a successful product of the inner city. please welcome our fine mayor, mayor london breed everybody. [applause.] >> mayor breed: thank you. good morning, everyone. now we know that if there were a woman mayor in 1906, this is how she would dress. i am here to celebrate history in san francisco because many of us who grew up here, we k

of the department. look, i guess i could imagine an argument that said manager like this, this report is going to be so damaging to the president we need to give him a heads-up. the weird thing is that trump himself took that off the table. he said the report totally exonerates him, so either that's wrong and the report doesn't exonerate him, or he's just willing to trash decades of doj precedent for nothing. either way, it stinks to high heaven. >> neil, the other decision that william barr has made today that's received a lot of criticism including from former u.s. attorneys and former justice department official ss that he's going to be giving a press conference tomorrow, again, apparently describing mueller's findings. he's doing that before there's going to be any planned release of mueller's findings and he's apparently doing that without robert mueller. it will be barr and rosenstein, not mueller himself, and again, nobody having access to any of mueller's documents before that press release, bef

he's proven his ability to lead the department. these build strong working relationships with those who are affect did by decisions. i believe there's no question he's ready for the job and can handle everything that entails. these are crucial considerations come especially for those of us in the western state. we all know the story around here i talk about a lot. alaska has more land than any other in the department of interior controls most of those acres. back home we often refer to the department as our landlord. not necessarily some name that we enjoy, but it has been a part of our reality. people in alaska clearly recognized that the decisions that are made back here have direct impact on them, their families and their livelihoods. but we've seen a change in that relationship with this administration. i think we've gone from that landlord tenant can i hang a picture over here type of a relationship to one that is based more on a working partnership and i appreciate that a great deal. we have seen good progress in the state of

to coordinate the department's school initiatives, plans and policies. additionally, to help ensure that d.h.s. gives school security adequate attention, h.r. 1593 requires the department to report to congress on the work of the council. mr. speaker, this is an important bill. and i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 1593. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from mississippi is recognized. mr. guest: i rise in support of h.r. 1593rk the class act. codifying this into law will ensure important channels for information sharing and coordination are maintained in changes in administration. currently, d.h.s. utilizes the number of tools to assist in the protection of our nation's children. for example the united states secret service's national threat assessment center has created an operational guide to provide actionable steps that schools can take to develop specific violence prevention plans for their students. additionally d.h.s.'s office of academic engagement, o. e

in the department of homeland security and the department of labor. in 2018, these teams saw a significant prosecution results including increases of 10%, 75% and 106% in cases filed defendants charged and defendants convicted. another hat sitting on the judiciary committee and through that committee's efforts in the last congress, we passed several pieces of legislation working with the department specifically to close loopholes within the criminal code and make it easier for the department to go after these folks that are exploiting children and trafficking human beings. this is modern day slavery. it's important for me as a member of this committee and i suspect every member of this committee. i think i can say that. we all want to see sex and human trafficking eradicated in this country and want to make sure that your department has the tools that you need to do so. the director wray was here and i directed some questions specific to this issue, as well. and would like for you to address for the benefit of all of us as we put pen to paper in our a

madam president, under secretary bernhard, the department will come to stand for the department of oil interests. these giveaways make it very clear what the objective of his tenure as the secretary of interior will in fact intel. the nomination is just a continuation of the trumpet administration's cocktail cabinets. only a month ago, a farmer was confirmed to head the environmental protection agency. let me say that again. just last month, a lobbyist was nominated and confirmed to be the secretary, the head of the environmental protection agency of the united states. unbelievable. but now, republicans want to install a former lobbyist to head the department of interior because in trump's administration, it is nothing but now we need more answers about the lobbying activities and answers on whether or not he used his position at the department of the interior to help former clients. the american people need to see the documents associated with the lobbying activities and most importantly, we should not confirm a former oriole lobbyist to lead the very agency that his task with protect

so like our ordinance last year, we want to get this above the kind of department to department fray and we've been working closely with these 15 departments. so how did we get to this policy? >> thank you. i'm back. so these are the 15 city departments with whom we're collaborating to basically try to lift up biodiversity throughout the city family to operationallize as lisa eluded to. the way this started, five years ago, i started convening this group of departments and we is been working together on creating sessiocreating vision d what are the holes to fill in termsfus of getting the work doe and that lead to may 23, 2017, our commission of the environment actually passed a resolution that identified five city-wide goals and you'll look at those in a moment and then, a year later, as lisa just said, last year, we passed a resolution at the board supervisors unanimously on apri. and so, since then, we've been implementing that resolution and this is actually the first resolved clause in the resolution which i'll read. sanfrancisco is the place where our local biodiversity thrives

there is an internal probe at the department department he confessed -- department of justice that is under way, in 2016 in specific, about the fisa release. so we go back to bill barr. >> the patient care act breathtaking. it is unbelievable, it stands out, your decision does for the bedth, the scope, recklessness and its lack of legal justification to invalidate the affordable care act. if you're successful, millions would see their costs skyrocket. senator collins put it best when she wrote to you dated last week. the letter was dated april 1st 1st. you did get her letter? >> yes. >> you saw she wrote your decision to pursue this course of action in the federal courts puts at risk not only critical consumer protections such as those protecting individuals suffering from preexisting conditions and other important provisions of that such, such as medicaid expansion, protection for young adults to age 26, regulatory pathway for fda approval for bio similar drugs. the department of justice's refusal to defend our law, the patient protection and affordable care act is distressing becaus

they've been encouraging the department of justice with the hiring freeze for which the department responsehas been there is no hiring freeze you just announced yesterday. there has been a hiring freeze since 2017. we've been encouraging it to be lifted for quite a while. senator van hollen. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. attorney general. i gather from your testimony that if you were a judge, you would find against the position they are taking in the case. is that right? you said your recommendation and the administration was touch each would likely conclude against the position but you said that the client of the administration for taking this position. did i understand your testimony? whatever advice i gave the administration would have initially been my personal view to the best legal -- >> if you were a judge, you told them that he would not support the case. is that the administration's position? >> i'm not going to say what the advice bus. >> i think it is clear from your testimony you said they still have some basis for going forward. let me ask you with regards to the report whe

what we asked the department of public works to do, working with the fire department, very early on, before this went out to market was, calculate what is needed. there are some efficiencies in design that are different than when this was built in the 1960s. so that reflects a natural reduction in the over all square footage. but we wanted to ensure programaticly we captured all of the needs of the station, that perhaps weren't being met today, but they wanted to have the ability to do that. so this actually exceeded the mark of the requirement, which i think was put out at 21,000 and some square feet, so we get a little more than the minimum required that we put out in the proposals, so we were pleased with that. >> so you're eliminating 2,000 square feet from the home of these firefighters, but you're saying that because you determined will is some sort of minimum, that you're getting a thousand more than that? >> this is the department of public works looking at today's design standards and requirements, the need for square footage was reduced programatically. and this included re

a former staffer at the department of labor and the department of education, who is now with new america, wrote an excellent piece, inside higher ed, on the risks of the trump administration's plans to deregulate apprenticeship. she said and i quote, rather than focus its efforts on growing our small but high performing system of registered apprenticeships, the administration has opted for building an entirely new system of industry recognized apprenticeship programs, or iracps. these irapss have little to no accountability, much like the predatory for profit colleges. ms. mccarthy makes that point in her piece, quote the administration is copying the system used to ensure quality, in the lowest performing and the most fraud-ridden sector of higher education. a system that has repeatedly failed to protect student and taxpayers, for its new approach to apprenticeship and once federal dollars are on the line, the risks and the scale of potential harm increase exponentially. it is not just favoring iraps, the administration is undermining the women in apprenticeship program, the work force

this doesn't seem like it is just one department. it seems like it's larger issue than just this department. would you agree? >> what this brought to my attention, we internally, we begun to look at all our compensatioexemption. the office of civic engagement is one that created a red flag for me to start looking more carefully. i have asked my team to pull up all the project and project description. my expectation is that we will identify some other issues that we will work quickly to resolve. >> supervisor fewer: appreciate that. is there an anyone here from m.t.a.? >> good morning supervisor. i'm the acting director. >> supervisor fewer: you have 290 category 18 temporary exemptions. >> yes, i believe that is correct. >> supervisor fewer: since m.t.a., would you say that the majority of these people are on special projects and work less than three years? do you actually keep track of how long your category 18 exempt employees are actually working? >> yes, one of the things we have undertaken, with civil commission, is to install n

from the department of police accountability. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. this is the april 10, 2019 meeting of the san francisco police commission. we have a moderate calendar tonight, so we'll allow three minutes for public comment, and we are ready for the first item. >> line item one, consent calendar, receive and file, action. >> police commission disciplinary actions report first quarter 2019. >> okay. this does not require any particular action, is that right? >> i believe requires a motion. >> motion. >> u a second. >> an any discussion? we need public comment. is there any public comment on this matter? seeing none, comment is closed. why don't you call for the vote. >> all in favor? opposed? >> none opposed. >> passes unanimously. >> thank you. next item. >> line item two, reports to the commission, discussion. 2a, chief's report. weekly crime trends. provide an overview of offenses occurring in san francisco. significant incidents, chief's report will be limited to a brief description of the significant incidents. commissi

under the guidance of the department is blatantly ignoring the science ofci climate change. the department took down its climate change webpage and rescinded orders and policies of climate change and g gutted e methane emission control rule at the behest of the worst performers in the oil and gas industry and she now has the audacity to claim that there are no walls on the books that require the interior to act on climate change this administration has attempted to dismantle every rule or regulation that requires the departmentak to take action. very concerning is the role as the trumpet administration's architect of opening public lands for unfettered energy tdevelopment. the last two years in theory arr auction off more than 16.8 million acres of public land for oil and gas drilling. in the first quarter of 2019, nearly 2.3 million more acres were put on the auction block. that includes potential lease sales within striking distance of the culture national historic park. a unesco world heritage site sacred to the tribes. and that's why i just introduced legislation to perm