>> now a house judiciary hearing on oversight of the department of homeland security and the department of justice featuring officials from each agency. during the testimony, dhs assistant secretary and the doj's attorney general for the legislative affairs fielded questions on compliance with request and the reduction process. this is about one hour and 20 minutes. the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. welcome to today's hearing and on compliance with committee oversight, stand for the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to theub republic for whicht stands, one nation under god, indivisiblend with liberty and justice for all. today the subcommittee will work to get answers directly from representatives in the department of justice in homeland security. we invite the department of state and health and human services to testify today and we are disappointed that these agencies are not here to answer the questions. especially since the state department failed to produce documents pursuant to the committee's subpoena we look forward

and the police department. about the amount of time it can take. i know dhr is here since you are here i will ask this, it is my understanding that the thyme it takes san francisco compared to other jurisdictions between when member is applies or hired to actually getting coming aboard. is long. and can i have also heard the inefficiencies in time will they are improving. il say that one thing i want to make sure i do as a member of the board of supervisors i spent time in this building watching hearings. where the right question is in the asked and the right question should be, what can the board of supervisors and the people in this building do to set our city departments up for success to address the problems we are concerned about. that is one thing i want to ask you about. so a 2 part question. one invite you to talk about challenges or inefficiencies to the hiring process. in terms of background checks. and then what can we do as a city to improve that i would love to hear from you and dhr and sfpd on tha

we work to get answers from the department of justice and the department of homeland security today. and we also have officials from the department of health and the state to answer our questions. they have failed to produce documents pursuant to our subpoena and we look for to their testimony in july. we also look forward to engaging with the witnesses that we have here to discuss the productions that we have received to date, and the status of our other outstanding requests. since the beginning of the biden administration, many republicans have made over 100 different requests for information and documents concerning the operations and actions of the justice department. we have also made requests for documents concerning the operations and actions of the fbi and the dhs. the committee has re-redated these requests for information and documents to all three agencies multiple times. on figure second, 2023, jordan issued subpoena to merrick garland and the fbi director for the use of espionage and counterterrorism tools on parents at school board meetings. these subpoena -- the respon

and today, the first city department is department of human resources. and thank you so much, director eisen, for being here. madam chair, members of the committee, i just want to thank the budget analyst and seven campbell for her work with our department. and we were agree with the changes to our budget a little reluctantly, but we nevertheless agree. thank you. we appreciate you. thank you. visibly wants to quickly conclude just a reduction. sure. good morning, chair chan. members of the committee, dan gonzales with the budget and legislative analyst's office. our recommendations for the human resources department are on page three of our report. we are recommended reductions to the proposed budget total $805,491 in fiscal year 23. 24 of those recommendations, 438 923 are ongoing savings and 366 $568 or one time savings. these reductions would still allow an increase of. approximately 8.9 million or 6.2% in the department's fiscal year 2324 budget. we do have a correction to the budget document which we distributed to the committee of the $805,491 in

protect the departments integrity. there are convictions for a wide range of criminal conduct ability to the january 6th attack on the capital. they're disrupting investigating violence and threats of violence, targeting those who serve the public. we are working closer than ever with ukrainian, partners our democracy, justice, and the rule of law. we continue to do so for as long as it takes. second, keeping our country safe. we're using every resource and our disposal to keep our country safe, and working to counter and prosecute threats posed by nation, states terrorist groups, radicalized individuals and cyber criminals. and, together -- we'll continue to combat the rise the began in 2020. only four of our u.s. attorneys offices are working along side of the state and local partners to pursue district specific violent crime reduction strategies. we are providing financial assistance to local law enforcement. at the same time we're supporting community-led efforts, a law enforcement components are working with the s

this supports the department of commerce and the department of energy. these historic investments that we have made to growth domestic manufacturing greatly appreciate your leadership in making these pathways available to more women getting more women in the workforce. as this committee considers reauthorizing the workforce innovation and opportunity act, i want to highlight sector strategies and partnership are particularly those that link employers with community colleges and other institutions of higher education. i've another example from oregon the oregon manufacturing innovation center it's a very innovative partnership between industries, universities, portland community college. university researchers and students work on industry developed research problems. then they provide students with hands-on experience to get the skills they need to become skilled workers. also portland community college as the willow creek campus and forge lasting relationships with oregon based and semi conductor companies. there's lots of great work being done at the s

uh, the planning department department of building inspection department of public health and public works. so in these, we proposed to increase via cp. i adjustments. and lastly, this is the slide showing our filing fees, which haven't changed since 2010. we want to ensure access to all we also do have a provision for a filing fee waiver if someone qualifies based on economic reasons. so that concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. thank you, and i appreciate all your efforts of communications with director jeff templin back and forth sort of just about this appeal process specifically for tax taxi medallion holders and that to actually have a you know, as a place at the boar appeals to allow folks to go through that process to appeal outside of sfm t a jurisdiction. it's regrettable that they decided to take a bag, but it sounds like according to the city attorney's determination that they have the right to do that. so i appreciate all the effort over last year, um, two trying to communicate and figure this out whether that is actually the best for the taxi dr

it sends a message that there are members of the department the police department, sheriff's department, fire department that are just like the people that we encounter in san francisco. and i think it sends a message of hope the more we honor the lbgtq community now, the stronger we can be in standing up against those that don't want our representation. [crowd noise] [music] >> [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]. [crowd noise] [music] [music] [drums] [crowd noise] this is my first time at the san francisco pride even though i have been here a couple years, i felt like now was the time to go. um -- really just coming to show my support and love for the whole community out here. um, i'm really excited to be here today. >> i think i am most excited be such an arc mazing community come together. just the love and support i think that especially in san francisco, um, people bring together it is this such a deep feeling. and i'm excited feel that today. [crowd noise] [music] [music] [sirens] [music] [crowd noise] whoa! [music] [cars honking] [sirens] [music] [horns] we never been to a par

develop and support department departments. technology engage the community and develop and elevate the new departments media presence. additionally it is noteworthy that no funding has ever been allocated to lease and maintain office space. funding will be necessary to provide department with its own office space. next slide. this slide displays the positions budgeted in the organizational chart with position names, classifications , types of positions in positions subject to attrition in the mayor's budget proposal, oppositions are vacant except the executive secretary position that i currently occupy. next slide. no additional positions or resources made it into the mayor's budget proposal and consistent with addressing the city's forecasted deficit. the budget was cut nearly 10% further. as you were called in the last budget cycle, the department already suffered nearly half a million dollars in cuts before this fiscal year. in light of the city's dire economic forecast. the office of inspector general is attempting target

our communities and our departments.m a proud black queer member of the san francisco fire department and i'm especially proud to be part of an organization that respects and values our diverse communities in san francisco. [♪♪] >> you know, i remember when i was a teenager, they did i think it was on the grammys, boss scags narrated the san francisco scene and they did a spot on it and how it's evolved and convergence of multi culture and the emergence of gay community, lgbtq, it was not even called that then. >> so like any good listening back then, i played softball and a friend on the team said, the fire department is recruiting women. i took the test in 88 and 89 i got hired. and i always say this, it was like a perfect career, it was like social work, i love that connecting and helping people aspect and physical. so i was like a social worker with an ax basically. and i just thought, this is like, this is it, i hit the jackpot. part of my story is, i grew up across the street from a fire station and as a young girl

develop and support department departments. technology engage the community and develop and elevate the new departments media presence. additionally it is noteworthy that no funding has ever been allocated to lease and maintain office space. funding will be necessary to provide department with its own office space. next slide. this slide displays the positions budgeted in the organizational chart with position names, classifications , types of positions in positions subject to attrition in the mayor's budget proposal, oppositions are vacant except the executive secretary position that i currently occupy. next slide. no additional positions or resources made it into the mayor's budget proposal and consistent with addressing the city's forecasted deficit. the budget was cut nearly 10% further. as you were called in the last budget cycle, the department already suffered nearly half a million dollars in cuts before this fiscal year. in light of the city's dire economic forecast. the office of inspector general is attempting target

the oak lan fire department was the first fire department i did. i did a firefighter one training program there. that got me into fire whim start the paramedic school i went to city college and fell in love with the city. i did nile internship at station 49. it was wonder. . i learned the san francisco wave doing things. like the wild, wild west, every day. i loved it was a family environment here. that made mow say san fan fire department, that's i didn't want to be. i avoided science my entire education up to becoming a paramedic. i failed my first time taking my emt registry. i hope well is nobody out there that gets discouraged if this happens. you have opportunity to take again. i d. i came back. took it, passed and continued to paramedic and pass the my registry the first time. being a woman in the fire department i am a minority here. a minority in multiple aspects. i'm a woman. biracial i'm the only black woman paramedic in the ems position. it is insane and i hope i encourage other women to join this profession that does not represent the

the department.how well are we doing, though in terms of diversity and leadership, so i would say that my command staff is a diverse, uh, crowd of people. um although they're not all here, obviously , but we do have a challenge with diversity. certainly in our battalion chief ranks and that is not because people failed the test or anything. it's just because of people. not really taking the tests for captain and four battalion chief. and so we are working with our diversity, equity and inclusion office, um, to work out career pathways for everyone in an equitable manner that includes um everyone being able to take the classes that would help them, uh to, uh, promote in their positions, and so it is something that i've been concerned about for several years, and, um, we still need to gain some traction on i know we've been talking with the private sector. about resources. is there anything in the budget that will provide funding for jack skis fireboat service on the south eastern shore? crank over ind

so we have city 7 departments which are the departments that support the most critical departments and we have been joined by, in addition to the ones we put in our request and call for response, we are joined by city librarian, michael lambert and his team. so, we'll hear from the community, excuse me, we'll hear from the departments with an opportunity to ask clarifying questions so first we'lly from susie smith from hsa and we'll hear for, oh, she's, deputy director of policy planning and public affairs for human services agency. thank you for joining us, the floor is yours, ms. smith. >> thank you. supervisor safai, for calling this hearing and bringing to our attention for the needs and giving us the opportunity to talk about san francisco human services supports in these neighborhoods. next slide. before i dive in, i wanted to give a brief overview of hsa structure because it is confusing so we're two separate city departments that are supported by the same foundation, so one department is the department of benefits and family support and that administers entitlement programs and

the department did nothing. when extremist groups, like ruth sent out and jeans revenge, ruthlessly organize harassment at the homes of justices, you sat on your hands. when the same groups posted online information about where the justices warship, or their home addresses, or where their kids went to school, you, again, sat on your hands and did nothing. your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families wasn't obvious product of political bias. you agree with roe v. wade, you disagree with the dobbs decision. the department of justice, under this president, was perfectly happy to refuse to enforce the law and allow threats of violence. and as you know, those threats finally materialized with nicholas russki, a 26-year-old man from california who traveled across the country, was arrested outside the home of justice kavanaugh, armed with a handgun, a knife, in burglary tools. he said that he came there to kill justice kavanaugh because he was enraged by the leaked opinion. of course, yo

when you “oined the department. * department. when you “oined the department. you _ department.e, as you i department. when you joined the i department, you were, as you say, provided with... i think it is called a day one high—level briefing. bearwith called a day one high—level briefing. bear with me, called a day one high—level briefing. bearwith me, please. 18334 on the screen. this first briefing. bear with me, please. 18334 on the screen. this first day pack included a briefing from the permanent secretary, and a number of other senior officials in your department, and a number of documents. could we please have page one? and if you could highlight e, that was one of your areas you are briefed on, that was delivered by clara swinson, then a deputy... the director—general of one of the departments. page ten. there is the section on global and public health. if you could scroll down the page, please. paragraph five. the main work areas in the group are, the first bullet point, emergency preparedness and health protection, director emma reed, this directory prepares for and r

going forward. >> we're your department. we're here for you. we're you and that, and i really believe that san francisco really embodies that. i tell you, it was the greatest decision i ever made. i kept thinking, my gosh if i didn't play softball i wonder if i would have heard about it. it's funny you plan in life and gu to college and you plan your next steps, but the most profound decision nz life, is how you meet people are random. i was meant to be i think and it was such a great fit being that social worker with the ax, that's it. >> so i see san francisco and san francisco leadership and government as a beacon for the entire country. because we are so up front about what we believe in, we're really up front about inclusivity and i know that, others look at us, many look to us. we've had other departments, contact us in terms of how do you, how do you do this? how do you create a diverse equitable and inclusive workforce? and so, but i would be lying if i said that we don't have any problems in california or in san fra

so we have city 7 departments which are the departments that support the most critical departments and we have been joined by, in addition to the ones we put in our request and call for response, we are joined by city librarian, michael lambert and his team. so, we'll hear from the community, excuse me, we'll hear from the departments with an opportunity to ask clarifying questions so first we'lly from susie smith from hsa and we'll hear for, oh, she's, deputy director of policy planning and public affairs for human services agency. thank you for joining us, the floor is yours, ms. smith. >> thank you. supervisor safai, for calling this hearing and bringing to our attention for the needs and giving us the opportunity to talk about san francisco human services supports in these neighborhoods. next slide. before i dive in, i wanted to give a brief overview of hsa structure because it is confusing so we're two separate city departments that are supported by the same foundation, so one department is the department of benefits and family support and that administers entitlement programs and

i mean, there's been a few departments not to say that all departments, all departments in the city have been working collectively and collaboratively over the last three years to deal with our crisis. but your department, like like a few, has had many things thrust upon you in a very short order. and you've been asked to manage a situation with limited resources. i mean, we did that tour of the 911 call center. i was i was extremely impressed with the job that you're operators were doing. but i was also feeling the pain and the frustration of being in very cramped space as their renovation is happening on the higher floors and also how your command, the operations center, has been put off and taken out of multiple bonds a few years in a row, a few times in a row, which is a disservice to the emergency delivery system in the city. i'll just say that which impacts our fire department, our paramedics, our police officers , every single front line first responder in the city. and it creates a stressful environment for your workforce then to have a whole host of initiatives thrust on you and

department of justice? what do you do as the justice department when you believe you've got someone who you believe has committed dozens of felonies? felonies in this case that he was only able to commit because he held public office. it was only because he was a high ranking public official that he was allowed access to these things that allowed him to commit these crimes. what do you do? do you just prosecute this guy like anyone else? i mean, at a base level, yes. nobody is above the law. we only have one system of law for everyone. nothing about being an elected official gives you a license to commit crimes or get away with it if you do. the last time we had to contend with something very much like this as a country the three young idealistic prosecutors who had run this case, who had documented all of the bribery and extortion claims against agnew who had amassed all the evidence for trial, they not only wanted to put him on trial. they wanted to convict him and put him in jail like he was just like an

department and said here what he is we found. we believe if we go to trial, we will prevail, you will lose and a judge will order you to do these things. wouldn't it be better than spending all the resources and money on defending a lawsuit if you simply came to the table and we worked with you to try to solve these problems. and that's what a consent judgment is. it is still overseen by a judge, so there is some teeth to it if the police department should fail to follow through, but they will negotiate exactly what that should look like. your use of force policy needs to change in the following ways, this will be the new policy, here is how you will train, here is how you will report violations and compliance. and a monitor will come in for some period of time to make sure they make those changes in a meaningful way. these take a long time and marq's right they're resource intensive and the justice department can only do a handful of them a year, but they are a very effective way of improving those individual departments. until

and these other challenges of emerged department as we merged departments. we also had to align classification and part of the alignment of classified means that we create parity within positions that are performing the same responsibility as i get that. so then what did you what are you doing? sorry, i just wanted to get get us going like by the way, this is i just wanted to make sure we get the technical understanding so then what are you doing with the 1823 and nine? seven, seven, four that now you have? so we would be opening those positions through the city process for applicants and then to which i believe my understanding is they would have to apply correct. and then we would we would fill those positions. and then but then you're not coming back. your upward substitution is that you're currently actually have 13 213, 12 and then you're upgrading, you're upward substituting them as two, 13, 14, and then your transitioning the two, which is the 1823 and then nine, seven, seven, four into those two, 13, 14. yeah well no, we want the two 1312 will remain

housing the department of early childhood, the department of sheriff accountability, the department of police, accountability all were created. to exercise its oversight responsibilities over the ongoing homelessness and behavioral health crisis. the board established the homelessness and behavioral health select committee this year. that's the board's fourth fiscal committee and ninth committee overall. for the board to fulfill its oversight responsibilities. a certain level of administrative support is necessary in the department and this table. on slide three shows the department staffing since 1996. the number of fts has remained flat for 27 years, with modest increases in 2019 2022 23 due to the higher workloads in the district offices and in the office of the clerk of the board. historically your legislative aides and the clerks in my office and those within the divisions in the clerk's office absorb more duties with less staff, less money and less resources. for example, in fiscal year 21 22 for the redistricting task force , hate to bring that up as my staff still feel the s

and today, the first city department is department of human resources. and thank you so much, director eisen, for being here. madam chair, members of the committee, i just want to thank the budget analyst and seven campbell for her work with our department. and we were agree with the changes to our budget a little reluctantly, but we nevertheless agree. thank you. we appreciate you. thank you. visibly wants to quickly conclude just a reduction. sure. good morning, chair chan. members of the committee, dan gonzales with the budget and legislative analyst's office. our recommendations for the human resources department are on page three of our report. we are recommended reductions to the proposed budget total $805,491 in fiscal year 23. 24 of those recommendations, 438 923 are ongoing savings and 366 $568 or one time savings. these reductions would still allow an increase of. approximately 8.9 million or 6.2% in the department's fiscal year 2324 budget. we do have a correction to the budget document which we distributed to the committee of the $805,491 in

department, and affected u.s. attorneys offices across the country, to make use of the tools, the scientific tools that we have, also some of the funding that was provided in the bipartisan infrastructure act. >> that is good news. i hope that effort will include advisory participation from state law enforcement, from local law enforcement, and from private litigation experts in this space. >> all of our work in the field involves partnering with the state of local law enforcement. always happy to have expertise provided, but our law enforcement working groups are confined to line for cement as a general matter. >> i just got a document from an insurance publication that says, i am reading here, at least 1375 climate change related lawsuits have already been brought in the united states. this includes suits filed by local municipalities and bite states. rhode island is one of them. as well as shareholders suits. given all of that government litigation taking place in this space, i would ask you if there is anyone

that department and all that they do . um i'm calling to ask for your support to fund um option number three and public works standards . i just want to let you know. i'm sorry, judy. i just want to hold your time and pass your time. this is not about this is not the public comments about city departments. this is a public comment specifically about share space fee waiver, so you may want to hold off and call back later for public comments for the general public comment. is that the place where i would speak today? or is that a different game at the end? okay thank you. sorry sorry. i didn't understand. thanks. all good. thank you much. judy gorski. we'll hear from you later. ah! miss second love next color, please. good afternoon supervisors. my name is amy clary. and i'm, the director of public policy for the golden gate restaurant association. as you know, shared spaces has been essential program for the survival of many in san francisco restaurant community and a draw for tourists and locals alike. we are grateful to t

police department. for example the long beach police department has established a time frame for the reprimands. they require that the chief of police meet with officers within ten working days of receiving an appeal and receive a decision within 30 days. so real quickly i want to address some opportunities, provide the police department with the opportunity to create efficient discipline process, establishing a clear documented guidance, and equitable a bleed without consideration and factors like the race, gender rank or assignment. the amount of time between when misconduct occurs can compromise the message to the community and affect employee's opinions on fairness. setting time frames for setting appeals of discipline may help avoid these risks and ensure a discipline process. so just in closing, i want to discuss next steps. it's our goal to try and get a draft of full audit reports to the police department in june. the full report will combine the information that i presented to you and the key i

vehicles for the department. it's very challenging because there's not much out there right now and build times have gone. through the roof as far as from 300 to 600 plus days. um, so that is challenging that will be challenging for chief mullen. as far as facilities are concerned. we just plan for the repairs as usual. for any big projects. you know, we will come to the commissioners and say these are the projects we're working on. the fire training facility is the biggest project we have ongoing at the moment. everything else is just generators, you know, um, station seven is another project that we are. um planning to, uh for um. and also if we have enough funding to, you know, to perform that job that build i'm optimistic. you know, the thought of is going to with what station fives plan use that as a blueprint. and kind of like tweak that for station seven. um i mean, there's so much i deal with on a day to day basis, you know, facilities fleet. um oversee clothing, logistics. etcetera. i just make sure ever