>> good afternoon and welcome

to the april 25, 2023 regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk, please call the roll. >> thank you mr. president. supervisor chan. chan present. supervisor dorsey. dorsey present. supervisor engardio. engardio present. supervisor mandelman. mandelman present. supervisor melgar. melgar present. supervisor peskin. peskin present. supervisor preston. preston present. ronen present. supervisor safai. safai present. supervisor stefani, stefani present. supervisor walton. all are present. >> thank you. we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of

the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> colleagues, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> madam clerk, are there any communications? >> yes, mr. president. the board of supervisors meeting is airing live on sfgovtv channel 26, or view the computer live stream at

www.sfgovtv.org to participate in person, come to city hall second floor room 250. otherwise to participate remotely the telephone number and meeting id is published on the agenda and streaming on the television or computer stream. if you need assistance during the meeting call the clerk's office, 554-5184. there are two additional paths to reach the board, send comment by e-mail using the address, bos@sfgov.org or send letter to san francisco 1 dr. carlton b goodlett place, room 244, san francisco california 94102. thank you mr. president. >> thank you. today we are approving the meeting minutes from march 21 regular board meeting. motion to approve the minutes as presented

made by supervisor walton and seconded by supervisor dorsey. without objection, the minutes will be approved after public comment as presented. madam clerk, let's go to the consent agenda. >> on consent we have items 1-6. these items are considered routine. if a member objects an item may be removed. >> any member like a item or items severed from consent? seeing none on consent calendar, a roll call, please. >> items 1-6. [roll call]

there are 11 ayes. >> those ordinances are finally passed. next item, please. >> item 7. item 7 is ordinance to adopt implement the memorandum of understanding between the city and county of san francisco and the san francisco police officer association. effective july 1, 2023 through june 30, 2026. >> roll call. >> on item 7- [roll call]

there are 10 ayes and 1 no with supervisor preston voting no. >> the ordinance is finally passed. next item, please. >> item 8, this is resolution to authorize the recreation and park department to accept and expend cash or inkind grant from the bay area young survivors valued up to $500 thousand for the design and construction of the renovated seating area with memorial elements in golden gate park for the project term of upon approval of the resolution until notice of substantial completion. >> roll call. >> on item 8- [roll call]

there are 11 ayes. >> the resolution is adopted. madam clerk, please call items 9-and 10 together? >> items 9 and 10 sapt and expend a grant retroactively from the california state parks department and specified grant. item 9, specifically is portsmouth square renovation project. in the amount of $6 million through july 21, 2022 through june 30, 2026 and item 10, this item is also retroactive for the south sunset club house renovation project in amount of $2.3 million termed through july 1, 2022 through june 30, 2026.

>> same house same call, the resolutions are adopted. next item. >> item 11 is resolution to retroactively authorize the office of contract administration to enter into contract with michelin north american inc. for lease of tires for san francisco municipal transportation agency buses and trolleys with initial contract not to exceed amount of $13.5 million for 5 years and $5.4 million for a 2 years not to exceed 18.9 million and contract duringation of 7 years. >> same house, same call the resolution adopted. >> item 12 is resolution to ret roactively authorize to accept and expend $70 thousand grant from the california

coastal conservancy to fund the islais creek program. >> same house same call, the resolution is adopted. next item. >> item 13, this is a resolution to authorize the office of contract administration to execute a second modification with base city produce company inc. for produce of fresh and frozen produce for zuckerberg san francisco hospital and laguna honda hospital by the department of public health to increase the contract amount by $5 million for total not to exceed amount of $11.1 million and a term extension of 2 years september 30, 2024 from a total contract duration of 7 years october 1, 2019 through september 30, 2026. >> same house same call, the resolution is adopted.

>> item 14, this is rez solution to authorize san francisco public library to give- >> supervisor dorsey. >> thank you president peskin. i wanted to take the opportunity as a alumni of emerson college to say, how grateful i am that a college that has done a lot of great work in the realm of comedy. this is a college with three comedy clubs and no sports teams, at least when i went there. it graduated people like (indiscernible) and the daniel's for the direction and production of everything everywhere all at once. it is a big year for emerson college and think this is a nice thing i just wanted to show my lion provide by supporting this. >> same house, same call. the resolution adopted. please

read item 15-17 together? >> 15-17. this is resolution that finance multifamily housing units the revenue notes or loan agreements. 15 authorize the execution and delivery in principal amounts not to exceed approximately $43.7 million in not to exceed $25 million to provide financing to construct 80 unit project known as sunnydale hope sf block 3a for total amount not to exceed $68.7 million. resolution approve the mayor office of housing and community development to execute a amended restated loan agreement for total loan amount of approximately $14.9 million to finance the construction of a sunnydale hope sf block 3 to execute the loan agreement with sunnydale commercial llc for total loan amount

approximately of $12.4 million to finance the community serving parcel connected to the project and for a total amount not to exceed $27.3 million. >> item 17, resolution to authorize the mayor office of housing and commune tee gement to execute standard agreement with the california department of housing and community development under the affordable housing and sustainable communities for total award of- >> same house, same call the resolutions are adopted. please read items 18 and 19 together? >> 18 and 19 are two resolutions that authorize the revenue note in one or

more series not to exceed $76 million for the purpose of financing the construction of 118 unit multifamily rental housing project known as the hunters view phase 3 vertical, and item 19 approves authorizes the mayor office of housing and community development to execute an amended and restated loan agreement with hv partners through lp for total loan amount of approximately $50.5 million to finance the construction of 118 unit multifamily rental housing development which will be known as hunter view hope sfvertical phase 3 project. >> same house same call, the resolutions adopted. next item, please. >> item 20, resolution to approve and authorize the execution of first amendment to the loan agreement with 4 840 mission associate lp to increase loan amount

by $8.9 million for a new total loan amount not to exceed $37.7 million to finance additional construction costs related to the 100 percent affordable 137 unit multifamily rental housing development located at 4840 mission street. >> supervisor chan. >> thank you president peskin. colleagues, i wanted to explain why these two items came out of committee without adoption. -without recommendation. >> would you like us to read item 21? >> sure. >> please read item 21. >> resolution to approve and authorize the execution of first amendment to the amended and restated loan agreement with turk 500 associates lp to increase loan amount by $4.2 million for new total loan amount not to exceed $23.8 million to finance additional construction costs and loss of permanent financing related to

the 100 percent affordable 108 unit multifamily housing unit 555 larkin street. >> supervisor chan. >> thank you president peskin. these two items colleagues i do urge your support. while they have voted out of committee without recommendation, it is simply because with money is actually going. the money additional money of all most $9 million for item 20 and $4.3 million for item 21 both are worthwhile affordable housing project, however the money is actually going to be paid to pg&e for their work of obstructing the power eelectrify and design to meet the obligation to elect riify the two projects. the money we are using to spend on

these two projects to pay pg&e come from two sources, housing trust fund, and the 2019 affordable housing bond dollars. when that happened, it also means that these monies are actually taken away from the affordable housing currently in the pipeline. it isn't necessarily in my district but i think city wide that is challenge we face. for that reason is the reason why we no longer-i want to say thanks to vice chair mandelman and supervisor safai during committee. both have really grilled the department of mayor's office of housing as well as actually sfpuc asking to figure out strategy to help the city moving forward, be cost saving, be it just options of share cost. i think that supervisor ronen will talk about it a little bit that like minds and we both

share this sentiment about whatever we can do in the event there is state legislation, we would like to see those in the legislation to be successful just so we can make sure that pg&e and companies like that can be and will be responsible if they create delays in critical public works project, in this case affordable housing for us. thank you. i really appreciate and actually i do urge for your support. please vote for it. we do need that money. just regrettable it is going to pg&e. thank you. >> supervisor ronen. >> yes, i want to thank our budget chair for your remarks. this is every frustrating-actually infureating problem we have with pg&e. not only do they increase cost by millions of dollars for every worthwhile project we have in the city, but they delay the

opening of critical infrastructure, including affordable housing on the regular basis. i thought i would weigh in now because of the relation to these two items, but i will be introducing a resolution today in support of sb83 by our own assembly member-senator scott wiener. i want to say that i don't think i have ever gotten full cosponsorship as quickly for a resolution in my 6 years on the board of supervisors. the minute each of you looked at it you said absolutely, sign me on and that's because this corporation has really gotten away with murder for quite too long. it is time for our state legislature, it is time for the puc to step up and do its job of regulating this corporation that is out of control. i

thought supervisor preston did a great job sort of telling the cpuc how it needs to step up in the regulation this morning and i just echo that that seem needs to be done for this utility that is ripping off customers, that has safety problem after safety problem and ripping off cities and basic needs for affordable housing for residents. thank you again senator wiener for introducing the bill. you have the entire board of supervisors behind you. we hope to support you and fight for passage as soon as possible. >> supervisor safai. >> i just want to-because it was a long discussion i want to summarize one thing for colleagues. the thing that was also very frustrating on top of everything that supervisor chan and supervisor ronen said is

that, when this transfer happens and infrastructure is required to be upgraded, we can debate about that all day long, it does change the customers from pg&e to puc and are there is energy being generated, but what was frustrating to find out was the puc said they were constrained in putting any money in as this was also infrastructure that they were now going to have customers generating energy from, which would then repay any infrastructure investment that they made. we are going to try and work on that as well. it is frustrating to think that $13 million that is coming from a pool that is intended to build affordable housing is put toward doing transformer upgrades in these buildings. in my district which is one on there today. they are required to literally to trench all most 2,000 feet away from the property, which is

what drove the cost up significantly, because of some of the aging infrastructure in the area, which is again, not necessarily a pg&e or puc thing, but to know the puc can't put money there to help solve this problem is also very frustrating as well. something we have to think about moving forward as policy maker s, but i wanted to put that out there. we do support this today, because it will help the project move along and keep it on timeline. we are working still on top of even funding this work. we are still waiting to insure the-it will be energized in time to move people in and that is worse if a property is done to have it sit there waiting for the power to be turned on before residents can move in. that is also another hurtle we have to encounter. thank you. >> no other names on the roster, same house same call, the resolutions are adopted. next item, please.

>> item 2 ord nnsh to repeal chapter 26x and repeal the prohibition on city funded travel and the city entering into contract with a contractor that has its united states head quarters in a state any or all of the contract would be performed in a state that allows discrimination against lgbtq individuals, restrictive abortion laws or voter suppression laws. >> supervisor walton. >> thank you so much president peskin. colleagues i wanted to state i did not support this in committee. there can be so many unintended consequence with this repeal. we haven't analyzed the repeal on small business and the effected protected populations. i think it is a mistake to complete repeal this legislation without a full study on the impacts of those businesses and without a conversation and plan with all communities that this ordinance

was put in place originally to protect. we can't make these changes without a plan, and understanding that states are now doubleling down on discriminatory laws and practices. i'm not comfortable giving a inclination that we are not still fighting against these discriminatory practices and laws. i'm also not completely sure what this repeal is attempting to solve. especially since there are exemptions offered within the current policy so city employees can travel and other circumstances, and this can back-fire on the small businesses and companies will continue to contract with other states for cheaper opportunities, so i want to make sure i stated that for the record and i do believe that it is mistake to repeal this-repeal 12x without having a full conversation and full plan and way we can affirmatively understand and know we are protecting our businesses and

protected classes. >> thank you supervisor walton. supervisor chan. >> thank you. i concur with supervisor walton's skepticism and i share the sentiment and so for that reason i will be voting against this item today in the event it does pass i colleagues i actually do intend and have been working on identify ways to change this and really to figure out ways to accomplish the intent and thank you. >> supervisor preston. >> thank you president peskin. i like to associate myself with supervisor walton's comments. i think the reasons for 12x have only grown with respect to recent activities of a lot of states in question. i think it sends the wrong message and concaner with the

position by the san francisco labor council against this repeal and concerned about the potential impacts on locally owned small businesses. i don't see it as necessary and will be voting against. >> supervisor mandelman. >> thank you chair peskin. i will be brief. i do think that this the intent behind 12x was good and correct and i think former supervisor winer now senator wiener and others had hoped that a coalition would come together that would pressure states doing offensive horrible things to stop doing those things. i think the evidence is that that as a strategy that that does not work and has not worked over the time 12x has been in effect. we have continued to add new categories of legislation that are truly

horrific and should do everything to fight but using the city contracting as the mechanism to try to fight that does a couple thijs. it raising the cost of government in san francisco and reduces the amount of good work that our government can do and creates a level of complexity to administer the kinds of wavers that generated nearly i think a billion dollars in contracts with 12x states in one of the years looked at in one of the reports we requested, so it is not achieving the goal we want to achieve. it is making our government less efficient. we have incredible need for vulnerable population ares right here in san francisco, queer folks, transfolks in san francisco who are experiencing incredibly high levels of violence, economic dislocation, homelessness, but other populations as well and the better we can make san francisco government work for our folks, the more good we can do and to the extent we want to engage and support

people in banned red states our own human rights commission has been challenged in doing that because of 12x, so i want to thank supervisor stefani and peskin and ronen and safai and dorsey and engardio for your support. i think it is the right thing to do t. is a hard thing to do, but i think ultimately it will prove to have been correct and actually good for the folks who we want to use our government to support. >> supervisor dorsey. >> i want to express appreciation to my colleague supervisor mandelman for his work and i think there was a lot of work done to reach out to the effected communities that were many of whom advocating for this. i was pretty transparent from the beginning of this with a lot of my perspective on some of the things we built into city contracting in san francisco. derive from my experience in city government as a manager and director trying to

negotiate ways to get contracts across the finish line and the ways that-for performative reasons that i think let us pretend we are doing something important to move the ball on lgbtq equality or voting rights or protecting reproductive rights is somehow being accomplished in these contracting restrictions, and the evidence is we haven't changed a single state law. we have made competitive bidding less competitive, and i think san franciscans would be angry if they knew the amount of hoops that have to be jumped through and added cost to city contracting, so i want to say i will be supporting for this. i think it is a good government right thing to do. i appreciate the leadership of others who did it. i think it will make competitive

bidding more competitive and it will better serve the san franciscans we are elected to serve. thanks. >> thank you supervisor dorsey. supervisor ronen. >> thank you. i won't repeat what my colleagues have said, which i agree with both supervisors mandelman and dorsey. i will only say that this repeal in no way shape or form would stop san francisco from joining on to national campaign or boycott seeks to get the same results. what bothers me about 12x, it is easy to act as we are doing something to move the needle but not only have we not moved the needle, things are getting worse, but the same time increasing the cost of doing city business as well as bureaucracy and limiting the

ability to travel to provide solidarity to people who agree with us in those states. for example, in september i plan to attend the local progress conference in saunt lewis there are progressive legislators fighting against the laws 12x is proporting to try to change and they are on the ground doing that work. this law is not helping them achieve it. what will help them achieve that work is progressive legislators from all over the country landing in their city, in their state, providing solidarity and support, so just wanted to add my voice to the conversation. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor melgar. >> thank you. i voted

against earlier piece of legislation that took half of 12x just for the construction companies. supervisor safai introduced it. the reason i did that is because even though i agree with you supervisor mandelman and supervisor ronen that there is a performative aspect of the legislation that is just we are against it, that on the target, doesn't really do much. just what do they care about san francisco and i do agree that isn't valuable but there are aspects of the legislation valuable to people i care about who i heard from. so the (indiscernible) small businesses, i'm not sure if they are totally right, but i agree with supervisor walton that we haven't quite studied, so i have heard from our city administrator carmine chui who i think is one of the most competent people in government and i respect and

admire and know 12x makes their live much more difficult. i also think that there is a community that has just gone through a pandemic, that came out at the bottom of all the economic things that we were following in terms of capital, loans, and i am not sure what this will do. do i think it will make things easier to administer cheaper? yes. are we ready for it? i'm not quite sure. i look forward seeing the efforts of my colleagues who i know share this desire to make things whole for small businesses, immigrant business, people who we are trying to help through contracting with our city, and you know, i think that you have votes but mine will not be one of them. thank you. >> thank you for all our comments. madam

clerk, item 2, roll call, please. >> on item 22-supervisor dorsey, aye. engardio, aye. mandelman, aye. melgar, no. peskin, aye. preston, no. ronen aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, no. chan, no. there are 7 ayes and 4 noes with supervisors melgar, preston, walton and chan voting no. >> the ordinance is passed on first reading. madam clerk, please go to our 2:30 p.m. special order recognition of commendations? >> for meritorious service to the city and county of san francisco, we have 4 members of the board introducing

today. we have district 3, the dispatcher of the year. we have for district 10, latino task force. for district 8, the sfpd mission station captain gavin (indiscernible) and district 4, the san francisco section champion lincoln mustangs. >> i will start with national public safety dispatch week which was actually a cup ouple weeks ago which is every year during the second week of april when we honor and celebrate our 911 dispatchers for their dedication throughout the year, throughout the country and to celebrate our department of emergency management plan week of activities

recognizing the incredible work of our 911 dispatchers. the board typically recognizes all of you during that week, but due to scheduling conflicts earlier in the month they are taking place today. i want to start by honoring and celebrating the dispatch supervisor of the year, max repcu. if you can please come on up. [applause] colleagues, members of the public, matt is from pittsburgh and moved to san francisco to pursue passion for art and are like many others instantly fell in love with the city. after completing his graduate school at the san francisco art

institute, a 150 year old institution, matt considered becoming a art professor but realized it meant leaving beloved san francisco so decided he would practice a different art instead. came across a job posting for a career as a 911 dispatcher. he was interested in public service and previously considered career in law enforcement, interesting for a artist. he decided to submit his application and all the rest is history. in maxes words his decision to pursue a career as 911 dispatcher was his winner lottery ticket. it gave stability, opportunity to raise a family and stay in the city sit he loves. as a rooker dispatcher max took a call from a mother who's baby wasn't

breathing. it was one of the first solo calls and max thought someone needs to help the baby and quickly understand that he was that person. max relied on his training and mentorship he received from veteran dispatchers of which he is one now, and guided the mother through infant cpr while simultaneously working with colleagues to dispatch emergency medical services. when he heard the baby cries and a that moment with tears streaming down his own cheeks, he knew everything was going to be okay. and now as a 911 dispatch supervisor, max is responsible for support and giving that same exact training to on-duty 911 dispatchers. he is well known for compassion, reliability, dedication and knowledge. max ontakes initiative to give dispatchers breaks after traumatic

incident, step (indiscernible) supports colleagues as a team player. in recognition of max's leadership his peers nominated him for the tony hardly award for excellence in supervision. that comes from your colleagues. the award is named after tony hardly, a dispatch supervisor who was a mentor and mother figure to san francisco 911 dispatchers who passed away some 13 years ago. max, thank you, congratulations, we see you, we acknowledge you, we honor you. [applause] >> thank you. incredibly prized and humbled to been awarded the honor. i never had the pleasure meeting tony hardly i

(indiscernible) i wish our dispatcher of the year katie torres could have joined me tonight with 40 years of service and retiring tomorrow. i like to thank the board for welcoming here at beautiful city hall. that said, this award is hard working dispatchers like katie. at this very moment at the ready they are protecting you and me. they brought me here to talk to you openly and honesty. during the pandemic, we did not get furloughed or have remote work or alternative schedules. each day for the last 3 years we packed into our call center to serve the public and other first responders and initially were assigned one paper mask per week. it was terrifying but we showed up because we are the first first responders. remember this was before any vaccine and thousands of americans were dying. many of us got covid or exposed to infections multiple times a week but we

have a duty and often forgotten as the voice of the dark. throughout the last 3 years it is very difficult. we are considered first responders by the state but not by the city. in fact we are still classified as clerks. with all respect to hard working clerks, can they help you save your choking child over the phone and get people there within minutes to assist? can they handle a active shooter? we can and will. i'm here today to implore you to help me take up the torch for improved working conditions. it is no secret 911 dispatch centers acrauz the country are unable to recruit and retain employees. we have been under staffed in my 11 years and likely decades before me but now dangerously low. i need your help to reclassify us. and match our state designation. until we are able to do that, this will continue to be a domino effect for you and your constituents. if there is no one to

answer the call dealing with the worst of the worst, the best of the best cant be sent to help you. your mother, your friend or neighbor will not be able to get through. san francisco 911 is the often forgotten foundation that all other emergency programs were built upon. in closing, after your (indiscernible) california considers us first responders but the city does not. what you can do to fix that. if you don't do something the results of your inaction may be a part of your legacy. thank you for your time and attention. >> thank you max. [applause] a true supervisor carrying the labor message of colleagues. i think we heard you and sounds like we got our work cut out for us. on behalf of katie torres who is retiring

after 4 amazing decades of service, the head of the department of emergency management marry ellen carol is here to accept on her behalf. dispatcher torres was on watch as radio dispatcher during a complicated pursuit involved in a robbery spotted the vehicle went through many different neighbors. established control like a pro. katie prioritize officer safety and anticipated possible radio coverage issues while crossing the bay. distacher torres selected by her peers how she handled that particular incident and 4 decades of service as a san francisco 911 dispatcher. katie helped thousands and thousands of people with emergencies big and small and takes care to insure first responders get to

incident safely to go home at the end of their shift. dispatcher torres is a example how skilled dispatchers handle incidents on a daily basis and 4 decades of service katie, sorry you couldn't be in person, we commend you, celebrate you is and thank you. marry ellen carol, the floor is yours. >> thank you president peskin. [applause] thank you supervisors. i want to thank you president peskin for honoring and commending our staff. they are the first first responders. they make every sacrifice any other first responders does in the city, and you know, i'm so happy that max wife and daughter june and parent were able to be here because as we know, all first responders are families make sacrifices, sometimes bigger

sack sacrifices then the folks doing the work and that is the case at 911 and the case during covid when they had to come to work under incredible uncertainty. we were telling everyone else to stay home for your life but you all come in, serve and go back home. it is a lot. we have been very transparent about our staffing issues and i think max represented the sentiment of the staff there. we are fighting hard to recruit. that said, we are recruiting and we are accepting applications on a ongoing basis, and so we thank you for your time and your consideration. >> thank you. [applause] madam clerk, could you please call the next special order accommodation? >> the next commendation is by supervisor walton for

the latino task force. >> thank you madam clerk. thank you so much president peskin and thank you everyone who is here this afternoon. today i have the privilege to honor the latino task force along with supervisor ronen and supervisor safai. the covid-19 pandemic brought us to a complete stop and exacerbated the inedwault inequality to all. -or access safetynet provisions and those who couldn't. as covid-19 began to hit hard and the latino population silently, the san francisco latino task force emerged as a community based response to the health and financial crisis experienced by this community. on april 6, 2020 latino leaders hosted the first call on zoom and

several non profit agencies and city staff joined to share, hear about and respond to the devastating impacts of covid-19 and what they were having in the neighborhood. they mobilized by creating food distribution for those that no longer had jobs and collaborated with ucsf to create the first community testing site here in san francisco. then seeing the school and work closures and knowing that so many communities were disconnected without schools and churches open to help, the first hub was launched at mission language vocational school. this hub was a one stop shop providing food access, covid-19 testing, housing assistance, employment assistance and are more. when finally have vaccine the latino task force incorporated vaccine distribution within their services as well. and it didn't stop there.

ltf worked to launch a site in the bayview with young community developer , the ymca and (indiscernible) helped advocate for city wide community response and funded for most impacted and vulnerable communities. as a crisis continued, the ltf opened a site to serve the pacific islander community in district 10 along with (indiscernible) what is known as the hut. this group provided the community with so many resource connections including access to food, translation, employment opportunities and housing assistance. as we move into recovery, we understand the need to have community hubs that truly work with everyone to make the service connections needed for san franciscans to thrive. you can find essential workers in the hospitality industry, food workers, cooks, store attendant, hotel workers and ambassadors. we need them our businesses need them and i

applaud the latino task force for helping to connect and support the very workers that help san francisco shine in recovery. thank you to all the members of the latino task force. i also want to highlight and honor all of the transitional age youth and young people who volunteered and served with the latino task force. many of our d10 office interns also worked and gain lifelong relation shpts and unique experience at the latino task force. that will change them forever and have lead to full time jobs. san francisco is a better place to work when we work together and thrive together. today i would like to invite after we hear from supervisor ronen and supervisor safai (indiscernible) to aaccept the commendation this afternoon. we have a tremendous amount of organizations that we are honoring as a part of

the latino task force and the office prepared certificates for everyone that can be picked up at the office at a later date. supervisor ronen. >> thank you supervisor walton. it is a tremendous honor to be recognizing the latino task force today. three years ago on april 6, 2020 i was asked to join a call with leaders from the mission community to address the impacts of covid-19 and its impact specifically on the latinx community. over 80 people were on the call. all most every latino serving agency i could think of was on the call along with city departments and many sfusd employees. this was the first meeting of the latino task force on covid-19 or ltf for short. little did i know at the time that this group of dedicated loving people would literally rally to

save the mission from the scorj of covid-19. as the task force began to take shape they sprung into action and demanded free testing for the community and resources for those who lost their jobs or became ill with no safety net. the support of my office we began to work closely with ucsf to create the first community testing site and (indiscernible) formed in partnership with ucsf. to date (indiscernible) is responsible for 96 thousand vaccinations and over 150 thousand covid tests. ltf did not just stop at testing, they established the first resource hub, which were designed to meet under-resourced families where they are regardless of immigration status. ltf helped clients move to criseing to stability and connected to service. launched the food hub to distribute thousands of bags

of groceries and cultural appropriate groceries. distributed millions of dollars to infected with covid-19 with no other resources or safety net to help recover and stay home from work. ltf services are provided with love respect cultural competency and compassion, young people stepped up into leadership and helped families all over the city and know what their future career might look like hopefully look like. as we move to recovery, commit to continuing to support ltf and over 13 committees who continue working for the community. between district 9, 10 and 11 we issued over 70 certificates to honor these agencies, city departments and a few young heroes involve in ltf. i don't know if (indiscernible)

garcia is here as well. there you are. i know you will come up with gainer to accept this honor. we are so proud of you. we are so humbled by your work and your leadership at such a young age. you are an example to us how the investment in youth can help hold up an entire community, so congratulations to you, thank you so much. she is now a master student. yeah ! and example of many youth who helped lead the task force. happy third anniversary and thank you to all of you to make san francisco communities that respond and meet the needs of our essential workers rchlt we love you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you colleagues. just going to add on. want to thank the members of the latino task force and the

leadership of ltf who over 3 years ago demonstrated the power of community and organized this massive effort to insure the latino community and sf who were and remain the most impacted community received life saving services and support. their services are not limited to the latino community. ltf serves diverse constitchancy and impact is extensive and supportive of all communities of color and while their impact is city wide their location is largely concentrated in district 9 in the mission district 10, bayview hunter point and district 11. i remain impressed by their impact and thankful for their leadership and love for community and the work they have done to bring the communities together. folks have been organizing in the city for decades, and the work they have done over the last 3 years is

absolutely exalismary. today happy to recognize and honor excelsior works (indiscernible) mission nairfbd health center at the 20 norton site in my district and specifically william ortiz, the founder of (indiscernible) quhoo happen to be a small business commissioner here to receive commendation on behalf of district 11 honorees. thank you for your leadership and tremendous work and dedication to community and recovery of all. thank you. [applause] >> in closing, i just want to say that this is a true example of community coming together, working hard, collaborating and fulfilling a need, faster and quicker then the city did. we appreciate that because the work of the latino task force became a model across

san francisco so we want to honor everyone and why we bring in everyone up collectively so you can see also the diversity and city wide effects of the latino task force. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you supervisors walton, ronen and safai. the floor is yours. >> is it morning still? >> no, it is 3 o'clock. >> sorry. culturally, i want to give the honor and glory to our creator. thank you supervisor walton for this recognition. all the work your team and you continue to do to assure that the no community is left behind cht thank you to all the board of supervisors for your work, belief and investment to our city and my pacific islander community. this recognition that i'm humbled and blessed to

receive and sapt is behalf of the (indiscernible) pacific islander community in san francisco and entire pacific islander association. as many communities of culture impacted suffer challenge with disparities, none of the work and love would not have come to fruition if we did not stand in support and solidarity and collaboration. the fact is proven the journey this far. with solidarity and love work from the latino task force our pi movement and efforts receive the moral support to restore and revitalize a near extinct population in the city. sorry, allergies. i'm not getting emotional. in the short period of 6 months, we have effectively been blessed to serve 1547 pacific islanders that is unduplicated

numbers. that number in 10 months have grown close to 1800. over all of our salt and ltf collaboration at the peer resource site or the resource site in 10 months we serve about 4,000. in collaboration with all of hubs in the city and ltf we served over 5 digits with vital and critical services to support all communities of color, not to forget when our world was hit with the tragedy such as the pandemic, it was our solidarity and community of ltf that stood strong voluntarily to take action and saving lives and create a model used all across the globe. as we venture further we now build together in recovery and prosper communities for generational sustainability. lots of work still to do, but we will do it together as we have. what do we say supervisor walton when

it is 9er game? let's go! thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon president peskin and board of supervisors. my name is (indiscernible) garcia. i just want to start saying thank you for the commendation for the latino task force and recognizing the work we have done during the pandemic and ongoing effort as we move into the next recovery face. i accept on behalf of all transditional age youth who stepped up to become a pillar in the community to provide resources to those left behind. i personally worked in the mission food hub where we provided culturally appropriate groceries to 9,000 houses oen a weekly basis, and this was done throughout san francisco and beyond and we prided especially in our support for farm workers. this work has shown me the injustice that have

happened to many mono lingual spanish speakers immigrant and families paid cash and no government aid. my experience enabled to go beyond direct service side and now pursuing a master in public administration pat san francisco state university. i am a product of what the latino task force and leadership does to uplift youth. wree are the leaders organizers and community members of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon board of supervisor. i want to start with a quote from tiffany carter from sf black wall street. san francisco isn't race or culture economics. it is culture. i appreciate you all and your legislated aids and your team because together with community cbo the

latino task force and the organizations that comprise the latino task force, we are doing it. we are the model for the nation. they hate us, because they want to be us. you know what i mean? you know that? special shout out to valerie. love her. [applause] she mama bear guides us. remember, it is not just us being recognized, we appreciate, it is y'all. with out you all we do the work on the street and quick action to respond to community needs. i commend y'all, because i know it is a thankless job for every. i appreciate you all. we are so honored to be recognized and again, thank you and thank you for everybody in the community, because everybody is a part of this so i appreciate everybody here. thank you. [applause] >> supervisor walton. >> thank you. lastly, i do want to just thank all of the founders. i know valerie is

tear, roberto hernandez (indiscernible) of course i cannot honor latino task force without honoring tracey (indiscernible) who is (indiscernible) d10 office. thank you so much and congratulations. [applause] >> madam clerk, next up on the special order commendations is supervisor mandelman honoring captain gavin, son of bruce (indiscernible) my former neighborhood. supervisor mandelman, the floor is yours. >> thank you president peskin. welcome captain. colleagues today i am offering a special commendation to mission station captain gavin retiring in a few weeks. second generation san

francisco native captain entered the police department in 1990 as a member of the 166 recruit class. over the course of more then 3 decades worked at 4 patrol stations and served on various special assignments inudclooing the fbi task force, special operations and special investigations. the dea task force and homicide unit. received 2 meritorious awards police commendations for unit citation, crisis intervention award and 120 captain commendations so captain you can add this to your stack. in district 8, a instrumental part of ongoing interdepartmental working group in the castro. i think captain might have been part of the inspiration or motivation for that group because he was hearing

from his officers on the street about the challenges they were having accessing housing and services, shelter for folks thin moment if and when they said they wanted those things. the group which includes sfpd, hsh, dph and adult probation made real progress improving street conditions and quality of life in the neighborhood and getting help to sick and vulnerable folks on the street. captain and his officers work every day with neighbors merchants staff from other city departments and my office to encourage unhoused folks many with significant addictions and other mental illness to accept shelter treatment or exit from the street. we had some folks who refused such offers for year finally say yes. i cannot thank the captain enough for his above and beyond commitment to the castro and to all district 8. you have left the district 8 neighborhood you served in a better place then

when you started and for that i'm profoundly grateful. we will miss you captain, but your retirement is most well deserved and i am and my office wish you all of the best and all your future endeavors. i think other colleagues may want to say something. >> captain. >> wait. sorry, supervisor ronen. >> thank you. captain i just wanted to thank you for all your tremendous hard work in the mission. we have gotten to work on many difficult problems together and it wasn't easy, but always a pleasure to coordinate with you and to brainstorm and see how we could work together to really make a difference in the streets of the mission and we will miss you very much, but i'm very excited sfr you to get to focus your attention on

happier things, and i hope you enjoy a wonderful retirement. congratulations. >> thank you supervisor, appreciate it. [applause] >> try to keep this brief. >> wait up. supervisor dorsey. >> thanks president peskin. when ever someone around my age is retiring it causes me to question my own career decisions and but i do want to say i think there is only oo sliver of the mission that is in the district i represent, but it was the honor of my career to spend two years working in san francisco police department and having the opportunity to work with quou and your team there. congratulations on a well deserved retirement. >> thank you supervisor. appreciate it. i'll be brief. i did want to acknowledge really quickly the dispatchers that are not only the lifeline

for the community of san francisco, but are also our lifeline for our police officers and i want to thank them. i have always had great respect for the dispatchers so thank you for honoring them today. i do appreciate that. i want to start by thanking my father bruce, former police sergeant inspector. [applause] for planting the seed and setting the example for something that i knew i always wanted to do. thank you supervisor peskin acknowledging him. when dad worked on your first campaign in north beach he was quite the representative and missing matching around north beach every single day. few other thank you's is supervisor walton. i do recall you coming to the station for our christmas event last yearism i thank you very much for doing

that. that alone set a great example for the officers at mission station that they center the support of the board and appreciate you coming out there. we have a small sliver of the mission district you represent by zuckerberg hospital. thank you for doing that, i appreciate it. supervisor dorsey, thank you for mentoring me through some of my pio media adventure when i first became the captain and had to answer to the likes of mission local or sf standard or even the chronicle or any various stations that were asking for some kind of sound bite so thank you very much. i appreciate that. you did throw me under the bus one time, i haven't forgotten that, but i'll forget that. supervisor ronen i wanted to thank you very much. we haven't always philosophically seen eye to eye, but you have always come to the table, very welcoming with discussions. you and santiago have been

instrumental supporting us and glad we had the relationship. key you mentioned we have attacked a lot of challenges but haven't solved any of them so hoping go forward some of those challenges can be solved because there are quite a lot in the mission but thank you very much for your support, i appreciated that. supervisor mandelman, thank you very very much for being opening and welcoming to me. i have thoroughly enjoyed working with you and jacky and david over here with the castro. as i mentioned in the mission local paper last week, one of my proudest achievements at mission station is collaboration with the castro, so thank you for acknowledging that, i really do appreciate it. and close by saying i woke at 5 a.m. this morning in sweat. i didn't know what i was going to say, but i knew that i didn't want to prepare notes and speak from the heart and just wanted to

thank everybody for everything for this honor. i'm very very humbled by it and say thank you very much and my closing remark will be and was not paid for this advertisement at all, but you really have a fantastic police department in san francisco. i have had the privilege of working with other agencies throughout the state of california and quite frankly throughout the nation and talked to some of my cohorts throughout the nation and we are head and shoulders above many police departments if not all the police departments throughout the nation and it is not a punchline when chief scott mentions the scott we are setting the example in a different areas and 21 century policing without sounding like a punchline, it is-we embraced that many years and i remember when we first had a lot of rhetoric and talk about police work and defunding and all the different changes that they wanted to make, it was

aastonishing to me because we had been doing that for many many many years before that, so be proud of the officers that work out there. they are all like myself. they entered this profession knowing we are giving back to the community we serve and it is a challenge and if you can support them in any way, that is my ask and thank you very much for this hum ble honor. [applause] >> sorry, i was remiss i want to honor my wife of 33 years. my high school sweetheart. she has been there from the beginning. [applause]

>> thank you. >> thank you president peskin. i want to briefly say to gavin and his family, thank you first of all to for sharing gavin with the city and police department. he is one of the guys that no matter who you turn to, who you talk to, the theme is he's a really good guy. not only is he a good guy but he stays true to what brought to this

profession andt thais heart for service. i got her-when i first got here, you asked him to do something and it's done. i know we don't always hit the mark on what we are trying to do, but he's going to give his all and until the last minute he has done that so we'll miss him. we thank you-i personally thank you you and the fam ily for what you have given to the city. i think we have a few more here at least one more and thank you for everything you have done over 33 years so thank you. >> thank you chief. [applause] >> precedent peskin, we have mustangs in the house! come up. line up along the railing. come on up. line in front of

the railing. the mustangs. come on up. colleagues, today i'm honoring the varsity boys basketball team at lincoln high school. come up and line up in front of the railing. they are city champions! [applause] alright! they vested all the public high school teams in san francisco and competed state wide at the california interscholastic terminant. we are focused on the ogolden stailt warriors hoping to win gave fime tomorrow, but today we are going to give love to our city champs. go mustangs! alright. [applause] perhaps one of our

mustang players will follow in the footsteps of golden state warrior (indiscernible) from my home town and went to michigan state. inspiring to watch a fellow alum achieve so much success. draymon shows whautcan happen if you listen to your coachers, teachers, parents and each other and put in the hard work. the lincoln varsity boys team did all that. they listened, they worked hard, they clinched the city title and reached the state championship tournament for division 3. i want to say to the team, san francisco is proud of you, you should be proud of yourselves. go mustangs! i think our coach has a few words to say. >> before we hear from you coach, supervisor walton. >> thank you so much. i want to congratulate all you for a great season, to all the player jz coach. some

players i have been able to watch several years. congratulations and want you to know the city loves you and board loves and support you, well done and great season. [applause] >> coach. >> thank you. good afternoon board of supervisors. superizvoor engardio. appreciate you and thank you for this honor for recognizing these young men and the sacrifice they made throughout the season. just to talk about what they do, some days they stay at school from 8:30 in the morning to 8:30 at night. that is 12 hour day. more then some of the parents work or-so, the sacrifice they made is great. we appreciate you honoring them with this commendation and not only just the players we have managers up here and a lot of coaches couldn't make it, but on behalf of the lincoln high school community, principal

sherry, academic advisor and two parents here we thank you and appreciate this. [applause] >> madam clerk, could you please call item 22? sorry, item 23. >> item 23, this is resolution to accept annual surveillance reports under administrative code section 19b.6 for various departments. >> thank you madam

clerk. colleagues i will note for the record that among these annual surveillance reports and i want to thank julian johnson from the city administrator's office for corralling all these reports and the various departments complying with 19b of the administrative code. there is included admission by the police department that they did indeed use facial recognition technology or avail themselves through third parties. they acknowledged that, they reported it, and have indicated they will take corrective action going forward, so i want to let everybody know that that is in there. i appreciate the fact they were forthright about that, and are taking steps to address that going forward. with that, on item 23, madam clerk, a roll scall, please. >> item 23, supervisor dorsey,

aye. engardio, absent. mandelman, absent. melgar, aye. peskin, aye. preston, aye. ronen, aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, aye. chan, aye. there are 9 ayes and 2 absences. >> next item, please. >> item 24, this is motion to aproint frederick martin for indefinite term to the african american reparations advisory committee. >> roll call. >> item 24, supervisor dorsey, aye. engardio, aye.

mandelman, absent. melgar, aye peskin, aye. preston, aye. ronen, aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, aye. chan, aye. there are 10 ayes. >> madam clerk, please read item 36 out of order? >> >> item 36, this is a motion to schedule the board of supervisors to convene a committee of the whole today april 25 at 3 p.m. to hold a public hearing on the operational impact of labor disputes at the felden institute on employees patient suvs compliance with written agreement and work place harmony and request the felten institute administrators 1021

and unaffiliated workers to attend. >> any members of the public who would like to comment on this motion, which will allow us to have this hearing? seeing no members of the public in the chambers, are there any remote public commenters on item 36? >> mr. lam, i see there are three listening. there are zero in the queue. you must press star 3 to make public comment. do we have any listeners who like to speak mr. lam? >> madam clerk, no callers in the queue. >> thank you. >> public comment for item 36 is closed and roll call, please. >> item 36, dorsey, aye. engardio, aye. mandelman, aye. melgar, aye. peskin, aye. preston, aye. ronen,

aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, aye. chan, aye. there are 11 ayes. >> thank you madam clerk. please read item 25? >> item 25, this is the 3 p.m. special order. this is for the board to convene public hearing to sit as committee of the whole on the operational impact of labor dispute at the felten institute. >> supervisor melgar. >> thank you very much. colleagues, for holding this hearing today as a committee of the quhole and thank in particular president peskin making room on the agenda and making it happen. colleagues, the felton institute provides mental health and social services and are treatment that transform lives. special emphasis on the needs of under

served communities including children, elderly, people living with disabilities and families who live at the apoverty lines. provides education programs for pregnant and parenting teens. we are not here to criticize or scuteinize the important work of this institution, which receives all most exclusively funding from government to operate. the purpose of this hearing is to promote good faith negotiations by both labor and management in restore workplace harmony to insure the needs of the workers are met, the dignity for the organization and the community served by felton to go without interruption. we have a representative here joining us online from the felton institute. we will also hear from representatives

of seiu1021 attempting to finalize a contract with the felton institute and workers who have not yet joined 1021. we also have on standpoint representatives from department of public health and homelessness supportive service who contract with felton along with other departments. the institute receives sizable funding from san francisco including (indiscernible) to pay for early care and education services. we as a board of supervisors have the right and the duty to inquiry why these negotiations are going so poorly and whether service is interrupted or degraded. the previous union contract already lapsed and this negotiation has been going on for quite a while now. the goal is to see if we can get everyone back to the bargaining table to negotiate in

good faith and insure the communities that benefit from the essential services provided by felton and with our support continue to receive good services. thank you also to my colleagues on the budget committee who heard an item related to this dispute earlier this year. i appreciate the good faith of my colleagues and appreciate also your keen interest to make sure that the workers and communities served are appreciated. mr. president, madam clerk, can we hear from the representative from felton joining us on teams? >> she is currently online. >> okay. welcome. sarah richardson baker. >> yes, good afternoon. thank you. i am also joined today with dr. (indiscernible) our chief operation officer. thank you again for having us

today. i did present to this body back in october of last year. i do want to point out that our ceo al gilbert regretbly cannot be here today. we received notice late thursday but officially friday last week. he has pretty serious doctor appointments scheduled for today, tomorrow and possibly thursday, and so he won't be able to be here, but again we are here. the goal of us being here today is is to gather as many questions we can from this body, bring back to the full leadership team, and hopefully be able to provide you with the answers you are looking for. i will again introduce dr. ketos and

thank you. >> good afternoon board. thank you for having us today. i'm (indiscernible) chief operation officer here at felton institute. i have been with the organization for 26 years. my relationship with felton started as a client. i was (indiscernible) >> doctor, so sorry, let me stop for a second. madam clerk there seems to be weird- >> we think it is on there and because they are probably using a speaker microphone. if she can slow down a little bit, then the tone may not run so close together. >> okay. >> of course if there is anything our media services or sfgovtv can do they can do that in the background. >> sorry, we just couldn't quite understand what you were saying. if you can slow down a little bit, it may come through

more clearly. >> thank you supervisor melgar. as i was sharing that my experience being at felton comes from leading the organization as chief operation office but as a client 26 years ago. my daughter is now a graduate of college and (indiscernible) so i wanted to just acknowledge that while we are here to (indiscernible) answer any questions the board of supervisors may have, (indiscernible) if they pertain to very specific questions that pertain to potentially our ceo or cfo, but we'll try our best to respond. i do want to state for the record that we have been meeting with the union for the last actually since september. in fact, we just had a union negotiation meeting today that ended at

about 2:30 and this was our 22 meeting and we have been in mediation meetings. we were meeting yesterday from 9-4 to try to conclude the negotiation with seiu. >> thank you so much. i really really appreciate you being here. please stay, because my colleagues will have questions after the union presentation. thank you. so, next up mr. president, we have seiu rep kristen hardy and bran den dockens who will make a presentation and i believe they have slides. i'm sorry, it is (indiscernible) okay. i don't have

that, but okay. let's have theresa come up first. welcome. >> thank you. good to see you. good afternoon board of supervisors. good afternoon members of the public and my siblings in audience and for those who are listening in. my name is theresa rutherford president of seiu 1021. you know, this has been a long fight with felton and shouldn't be. they represent some of our most vulnerable in our communities, and they also represent some of the most important workers in our community, front line workers. unfortunately felton has chosen to be very negative and subverseive and have done everything to

undermine workers, including calling the police, including having captive audience and telling them how bad the union is, including paying people to drop out of the union, and the list go on and on. al gilbert the ceo earns more then $300 thousand per year. while these workers are struggling to meet their basic needs. some barely earn minimum wage. the city and county of san francisco cannot afford to continue to bank role a employer who fost r a color of disenfranchisement, devaluation of black and brown workers and quashing the build power to collectively bargaining and have a equal steet at the table. stand behind workers at felton and are demand they take their rightful place at the table to be able to bargaining collectively for livable wage and benefit and workplace free of harassment and

intimidation. that is all we are asking for, a fair chic for black and brown primarily women of color who must have power in the workplace. the strongest power is through collective bargaining. this must not be taken away from them and the city and county must not support colonialism kind of work place where women are treated like nothing. it is wrong, that isn't city and county role, that is not how we must spend our public dollars and must hold the employer accountable and with that, i want to hand over to (indiscernible) a felton worker and front line worker who has had the cops called on her while at an action standing up for herself and coworkers and building power.

>> thank you. my name is (indiscernible) lorraine, i am a clinical case manager in one of felton's oldser adult program. i work with people over 60 with serious mental illness and substance use disorder and not yet represented by seiu. i'm one of the workers who would like to be. i love my job, i love helping people age in the community and live their best life, but i in 4 years have literally never had just my own case load. the turnover is so bad that in the last 4 and a half years i have continuously been covering sfr for opening positions. i was carrying 150 percent of my maximum case load. my coworkers and immediate supervisors, we are all caring and highly

motivated and high lee skilled, and we love working together, but we are continuously rationing care, which leads to bad outcomes for clients and for staff. in 2019, i joined with several of my coworkers in contacting seiu because we thought expanding the union at felton would be a good way to improve outcomes for clients and staff. since our campaign has gone public, felton has gone out of their way to undermine our efforts. i have been threatened with calls to police and last year i needed medical leave and hr explicitly sited union activity to delay and complicate, make me refile documentation despite clear recommendations from my doctor. that-all this

retaliation against me personally makes it unsurprising my colleagues overwhelming majority of whom spoken to support forming a union expanding the union to cover all of felton workers, are supportive but too scared to attach their names and come here today and tell what they need. it is really disappointing to me and seems cynical felton is spending focus and money to fight and harass and burn out staff instead of supporting the programs we disparately need. i'm here taking the time today to ask you to hold felton accountable to the contracts, to the commission and support taxpayers have given to care for san francisco most vulnerable residents. thanks a lot. >> thank you so much. thank you for your courage and coming forward today. okay, now colleagues, we will have

kristen hardy and brandon (indiscernible) >> good afternoon fellow board of supervisors. appreciate you guys taking the time to hear today. this is a very very important issue we have been dealing with with our members and like said a lot of them are scared and have been bullied not to come in person. this is the second time here, and chelsy will get the slide show popping for me in a second. okay. so, what is wrong with this picture? felton institute is union busting. felton workers many are women and people of color have been organizing to join our union and improve their working conditions, but have been met with harassment, lies and unfair labor practices. felton institute workers serve the bay area most vulnerable community members, but years of

short-staffing, lack of support, retaliation for union activity and low pay for front line workers have lead to burn-out and 27 percent average turn over rate over the past 5 years. seiu represent 30 non profits in the city. our members have fought and won strong contracts that attract and retain talented workers to serve the city residents. we are not the problem. felton workers are experiencing intimidation for union activity from retaliation by manenment for wearing a union shirt to denied a union rep in a disciplinary meeting. in february 3, 2023 interview with kqed, former employee and union member shared her and

her fellow worker experience at felton. this was her statement. we are scared. i'm scared. i'm scared i will lose my job. i'm scared my clients are going to be left with no support. they have called the cops on us. they threatened us. they have terminated people. they have put people on leave. so, while my -please listen to and watch this video from the budget and finance committee hearing on october 26, 2022 providing further evidence of the disparity between what felton says and what the workers experience. thank you board members. >> thank you. supervisor melgar. >> we support the right of felton employees to organize, form a union, join a

union, and engage in concerted activities. we have gotten e-mails from the time we went public as our union campaign. e-mails to all felton staff with a picture of the (indiscernible) saying do not sign this card in big print. >> over the last few months 1021 made concerning allegations regarding felton institute to the national labor relations board and possibly to members of the board of supervisors. seiu 1021 believes felton institute called the sf police department on picting activities. no one from felton institute called the police. >> i was on a public sidewalk during personal time handing out fliers about unionization and felton management threatened to call the police. >> in fact, all felton executives and leadership team hold progressive values and respect employee rights. >> felton management

likes to claim that they are neutral about the union, in the daily day to day activities and just my life in the school is completely anti-union. >> good afternoon board. thank you for allowing the opportunity to share with you. brandon, the (indiscernible) and as you can see, felton is violating the on pp going and legally binding neutrality agreement with 1021 and that agreement they promised to remain neutral and not discourage unionation through coercion intimidation. we included a copy of the portion of neutrality agreement with along the signatures of felton

ceo-they continued to act in bad faith. the national labor relations board found with numerous unfair labor practice charged filed by 1021 and management is trying to delay resolution and avoid resolving the issues for their workers. these charges include, terminating employ eases and threatening with discipline for supporting the union and engage in legally protected union activities. while they fight felton working unionization efforts to insure higher wages and better benefit, felton executive team pay 6 figure salaries. in 2021, al gilbert was making $165 a hour. while felton teachers made as little as $17.50 an hour as

recent as 2021, more then 9 times less then the ceo. it is shameful to receive 95 percent of funding from public dollars while disregarding the rights of the workers to form a union and have a voice at work. braisingly defy a legally binding neutrality agreement and violate the national labor relationship act and the right to organize. felton receives over $20 million in funding from the city and county of san francisco. they must be held to higher standard. our ask is that you hold felton institute accountable to follow all aspects of the current agreement with seiu 1021 including honoring the neutrality agreement, insure that felton workers respect the worker right to organize under the national labor relation act if they are going to continue to receive funding from the city and county of san francisco. tell felton to go back to the bargaining

table in good faith with 1021 to reach agreement and stop interfering with the rights of the workers who want to join the union. thank you all for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. before we go back to supervisor ronen, i just want to say this to the felton institute, which is, this board of supervisors negotiates as the city with 53 different bargaining units. under our umbrella there are countless other organizations that have contracts with non profits that we do business with. 30 of them were mentioned as seiu affiliates. it is extremely rare that it gets to the point where we hold a committee of the whole at the board of supervisors. we got a lot of things to do. this means it reached a

critical point, which means-i just want to be clear that it is time for felton institute and mr. gilbert to get their act together. this is a contract that comes with cities (indiscernible) and this is not what we want to be doing here. i appreciate-i was reluctant to have the hearing because this isn't normally what we do, but supervisor melgar and seiu convinced me this rises to the level and behavior and tactics felten implemented and instituted are unconscionable, wrong and this better get resolved because i don't want another one of these hearings and if we do there will be severe consequences. >> thank you president peskin. i just want to go back in the timeline to explain that i had a initial meeting with mr. gilbert and his leadership team where you know, we got to know each other, talked

about the issues and was assured there was a neutrality agreement at felton was a progressive organization, that the leader ship team had progressive values, that they were supporting the union. it was miscommunication. there was a picture painted of communication and collaboration. we then-i then asked for some information, and i asked for contracts. i asked for records of workers. didn't get anything. i got a letter saying nothing to see here. we then had a hearing at the budget committee and ceo gilbert did not show up. mr. richardson baker came i read a very nice statement. she was not empowered to answer questions. the workers were able to come and have their say, but we didn't get

any of our questions answered, so then i send a formal request because as you know we have subpoena power, and gave a deadline. couple hours before the deadline i did finally get the records that i had been requesting. nicely first and then under the threat of subpoena and after the hearing, and so when we did get all the records request, i wanted to make sure city and county of san francisco monies were not being used for union busting activitiesism i are wanted to make sure what they had been telling me of collaboration was born by the document but i found that was not in fact the case. so, in all of the documentation that they sent to me, we did find evidence of felton institute hiring jackson lewis, one of the more

notorious antiunion busting law firms of fliers with the felton institute logo on them and think some of the workers are going to speak to that experience. i'm deeply disappointed that in serving our most vulnerable with our limited resources, we are having the situation and organization that has a vision and mission that we can all support, but that part of that mission and vision really should be dignity for workers who are mostly women and women of color who dedicate their lives to taking care of folks who are vulnerable. so, thank you again president. i do hope this is the last one and hope the message gets through. i'm deeply disappointed that ceo gilbert could not be here today. let me add, thank you for sitting the committee of

the whole in. the union and workers got the exact same notice as the felton institute management at the same time. we could fit them today. some showed up and some did not. i want to say, make time for what's important. okay. thank you so much. i don't know if the union folks have anything else to add in the presentation or if we just do that through public comment? >> i know supervisor walton has words he would like to add. >> thank you president peskin. i was just going to piggy back on some of what you were saying and jump in. i think the thing for me one, trying to infringe on the rights to people to organize is one of the most immoral things to do. everybody has a right to be represented and there is a reason why we have a process and policies in place for that to happen, but what is really disrespectful and disheartening for me is that this is the second time we had a

opportunity to hear from the leadership of felton and the ceo isn't here. that personally pissing me off because i wouldn't do that to my team where there is a combat or fight or situation where i have disagreement with another entity and sell my own team out and make them come out here but you have to present in front of the board of supervisors. when we ask you to come to the board, that is something that you should not take lightly and take the time to show up, because all of us are here right now taking the time to have this discussion and hopefully get to a point where we can move forward like president peskin said. it is time to move this forward so we don't have to end up here again. >> (indiscernible) >> i want to thank you for showing up today. that goes for the staff of felton that actually showed up today as well as labor and as well as employees of the non

profit. thank you. >> hold it down, sir. either that or--supervisor chan. >> thank you president peskin. i just want to say you know, i agree with supervisor melgar that we spend some time at the budget committee. it was disappointing that mr. gilbert didn't show up and again today and it is regretbly if he has a medical issue, but we-i want to remind colleagues that i think that felton institute has hp holds some of the largest contract with the

city. it is disappointing. we do have a list here listing all the contract it holds. if i'm reading this correctly, it is quite a large sum, and it is a alarming large sum, so we are going to continue to look into this, and supervisor melgar, you have all my support. thank you. >> supervisor preston. >> thank you president peskin and thank you supervisor melgar for calling this hearing and to all the folks, all the workers at felton. a lot in my district working every day as well as around the city. we appreciate you and sorry that it has come to this and not getting more positive response and good faith negotiation with management here. you know, i will not repeat what the stern

words from president peskin and colleagues. i concur completely, but i did want to note one thing. sometimes i think people are unfamiliar with the whole industry that exist around union busting and the fact-i'm disturbed when non profit organizations are using the same industry, the same law firms as big business to undermine union organize hading work, and think it is highly problematic. i suppose a non profit has a right to hire who ever they want to advice them, but i do have concerns when we are talking about organizations that are city funded and whether city funds are used directly or indirectly, and just to give a sense, i believe felton-supervisor melgar references uses jackson lewis

as their counsel in union and worker related issues. go visit jackson lewis website. this isn't like some conspiracy theory as to what these firms do. i'm looking now on jackson lewis.com/unionfree. it is big bold letters, remaining union free. a counter organizing simulation preparing your team. it is a long description of the strategies, what they call the innovative strategies and implementing a plan to keep a work place union free. this is not just in the minds of those of us who are concerned about this, this is literally what these firms do, and am very curious and don't know if this came out in the budget hearing. i watched some of it; but whether we know for certain not a penny of city money

is going to felton for purposes and being used to hire a firm like this and jackson lewis isn't the only one, but there are a number of firms known for this. this is why they are hired. i see supervisor melgar- >> they are still on the call, if you want to ask. >> thank you supervisor melgar and through the president, if felton is on, maybe they can clarify whether any city funds are used paying for jackson lewis or any other union busting firm? >> please proceed. sara richardson baker. >> thank you. i'mic looking in my records. my answer is no. we did submit to supervisor melgar

request and no dollars had been used in union busting activity. >> i think it is important to emphasize that felton had a long history partnering with 1021 for the last 25 years. i wasn't in management- [difficulty hearing speaker] until recently the relationship changed and dont know what caused the change. i would say about a year and a half ago, something changed, and we definitely- (indiscernible) the dynamics showing up and we needed to see people (indiscernible) how to navigate these challenges that we were now having that (indiscernible) we had a longstanding relationship. we always had pretty easy going in staff negotiations. it is the first

time this has been the longest time that we have been in negotiation and we have been active in this space. none of us are experts in organizing and i do want to say and acknowledge the fact that (indiscernible) i was in reaction showing up monday morning from the weekday where they had experienced a union visitor in the home and were not aware. they check our neutrality agreement established in 2019 between seiu and felton. (indiscernible) collaboration, communication, working to coordinate those efforts, because not only did we say at that point, but our position today is we very much believe in the fact

that felton employees have the right to if they choose to want to be represented by seiu by all means call a vote, collect (indiscernible) that has not happened and so we have been wanting to meet with them. in fact, we have a meeting scheduled with seiu in two weeks- >> mr. president, if i may-- >> let me just do this. sorry to cut both you off. do you understand what neutrality means ma'am? >> yes. >> alright. did you card check neutrality? yes or no question. >> i'm sorry, say again? >> did you agree to card check neutrality, yes or no? >> yes, we do did. >> that means you stay neutral and doesn't matter if organizes knock on doors at

their home. that is what neutrality means? >> i understand and we learned throughout the counsel provided to us and since then we- >> is it true you hired a union busting law firm? yes or no question. >> no. >> that's not what they proport on their own website. supervisor preston the floor is yours. >> thank you. and look, you mentioned the relationship changed. interested if that coincited with the hiring of a union busting law firm which would poising the waters here. i think we need to be looking both here with this situation with felton and more broadly-i don't take comfort in the fact we provide 90 percent of the funding for non profit and they hire a union busting firm and then maybe on the books they can somehow show the 5 percent-they use the 5 percent to hire the firm. i like for us as a board to

explore whether we can set up some guidelines and limits. we just had a long talk about not doing business with certain states, i think we sure as hell could i hope require that organizations that are all most fully city funded are not hiring union busting law firms and i would say, i'm the last person to interfere with your contracts felton with jackson lewis and sure the city attorney would start yelling were i try to do that, i can just tell you that who you hire and who you get advice on how to handle your relationships with workers is going to have a big impact i would think on the tone of that relationship, and i just amazing that felton would be using a law firm that is so proudly opposed to workers opposed to worker organizing and labor unions. i find that

unacceptable. thank you. >> thank you supervisor preston. supervisor safai. >> thank you supervisor melgar for calling the hearing. thanks for all the folks from labor coming out today. the thing i'll add-most things have been said. i agree with a thousand percent. want to associate myself with a lot of comments that are made by colleagues. i think it is absolutely disrespectful for executive director of a non profit that gets vast majority of the money from the city. i would say do you have the list through the chair to supervisor melgar, what are the main funders, which departments fund felton at the highest level? >> in fact, supervisor chan chair of the budget sent me her list, and we are mostly children youth and families, dph, hsh. >> and are- >> and mostly dph. >> mostly dph. is

anyone from dph here today? >> yes. >> who is that? because what i would say, i just feel like one thing that i learned from working in the labor movement all most a decade, the place you need to begin is by listening to the workers first. we heard from the workers today. regardless what the organization has said and it seems like-i feel actually bad for people that are there and not the executive director and think they are trying their best, but when we heard from the workers today, those that have come and those represented by the union here today, every single one of them felt as though they have been indimitated, uncomfortable, tried to come together to have their voice heard and every step of the way they have been denied and made to feel unwelcome, and this is a--supervisor peskin said, it

is a very straight forward exercise. neutrality is the employer takes a step back and let the worker decide their determination and it seem s loud and clear the workers voice is intentionally suppressed. i have a problem with that and also have a problem with the departments funding the organization because they need to be held accountable too. what understood from last week we heard last week in the paper that a contract was canceled by the department of homeless supportive housing and sole source awarded as i understand it to felton. without any competition, without rfp, without conversation and so that level of contract and size of contract i believe $30 million is being awarded at that level the executive director should have the respect to come to the body that has a final say on those contracts and the

departments working with this non profit should be doing a better job of holding this employer more accountable. i appreciate the workers that have come forward today. i know it takes a lot of courage. i know it could be scary to speak in front of the body and think you have done a phenomenal job. i like to hear from dph. >> we have michele regals from department of public health director of business office and rob- >> thank you. >> the floor is yours. >> mrs. rugals, are you there? >> yes, right here. >> thank you. i know you just deal with the budget. i know you are often the one asked to come forward on behalf of the department and dealing purely with fiscal aspect so are fot doing performance and oversight of it contract, but who on the team is responsible for the majority of contracts that deal

with-that work with felton institute? >> good afternoon, michelle regals director of dph business office. we have a team that does annual monitoring, it business office of contract compliance. within felton we have 8 contracts and there is about 25 different programs, each of which are monitored annually. the annual monitoring occurs after the fiscal year is closed, so we have completed 2021 and will be starting on catching up-finishing 21-22. in a quick review, i'm unaware there are program findings that were plan of action, which is-happen at the monitoring level for each of the programs. go ahead.

>> go ahead. >> just to finish, felton isn't on a corrective action plan, which is high er level city monitoring, and for this hearing checking with staff. one of the impacts that isn't unique to felton across the cbo's is under-staffing, which in some of the programs impacted their service delivery. >> got it. we are not necessarily focused on that today as much as the treatment of the workforce. are you aware of the fact that they hired a law firm that has antiunion posture? >> no. >> are aware if they used city funding to hire the firm? >> only have what they sent in the letter response to supervisor melgar, which i believe said they had not. >> not used any city

funding? >> yeah, if i'm recalling correctly what that memo said. >> right. is the condition or is the treatment of their workforce or their employees something that you monitor in your contracts? >> no. >> interesting. okay. >> we do client satisfaction reports for the client and follow up on whistle blower reports or whistle blowers actions that come to the controller's office or directly to our department. >> okay. thank you. i would just say for the record, i think that this is something as member of the budget committee as we have seen over the years, there is a narrow perspective or very narrow way in which the contracts are monitored and administered from many different agencies, particularly from dph as it pertains to the delivery of

services and it is actually pretty surprising that the condition of workers and treatment of workers is not something that a department would look at when it is giving that level of funding to these non profits. something that we are very interested in following up on, and really want to appreciate the workforce and supervisor melgar for this today. thank you. >> thank you. before i call on supervisor stefani, can you tell us where mr. gilbert is today? >> hi. thank you. mr. gil bert is at a series of doctor appointment previously scheduled without going into too much detail. it is a pretty severe complication he has been dealing with over the last 3 weeks. >> thank you for the information. supervisor stefani. >> thank you president peskin and thank you supervisor melgar for calling this

hearing and thank you supervisor safai for your comments, because it is exactly where i was going with mine. i just want to say, it is really disturbing to hear taxpayer dollars given to a non profit would be used in a way for union busting and the fact that workers are scared to organize or unionize bullied, everything we heard today is very disturbing to know and one reason too that i'm looking into better monitoring of our non profits, and this is something that i will take into consideration as we continue to pursue that legislation. what is really disturbing to me is that this has been known to be a problem for quite some time. supervisor melgar started to bring it up and the fact that what supervisor safai

said out of the blue we have a $30 million contract go to felton institute without having us weigh in at all, which given everything we have known about you think the department know about, they are able to operate supportive housing for formally homeless veterans and adults at hope house, bayview drop in center and sleeping site and recreational sleeping center. you heard from dph they are aware of under-staffing and we have learned there is a 27 percent turnover rate, so for me, i just don't understand how the departments can award a contract based on these facts, based on the fact we haven't weighed in. based on the fact that there's serious allegations of union busting and not upholding

neutrality in the contract and disturbed by what i heard today. i don't know what exactly-what power we have in this regard. we have approve contracts that come before us but the fact one can be given out a sole source contract to take over another failing non profit that is disappointed us and there are many great non profits doing incredible work, but this is something i think we should look into as a board to better understand how this work is taken over by another non profit without (indiscernible) >> thank you. supervisor chan. >> thank you president peskin. i think what i want to say is that learning from the budget committee hearing that day and also just kind of-especially given today that we

both-this body has past the 12x ban on construction and again 12x for all contract in general, and i just also want to differentiate between contract like the services and the city government purchase, versus grant agreement which is we give away the grant. we give the dollars for a city service, all this i learn from city attorney, just kind of thinking about just the city doing business with any organizations that is against our values and in this case, particularly with felton institute and just thinking about union busting and the lack of labor harmony, and adding to that just are thinking about any organizations that could be having any type of labor discriminations that

is filed by the protected class like lgbtq community or communities of color and of course our elders and all that, so with that, we have been working on legislation that possibly figuring out ways that i mentioned earlier during our 12x conversation and i think that i want to let you know colleagues, we are going to continue to work on that and i think that the idea is-this is a direction we are taking in terms of contract and grant procurement process, what can we do to provide that additional layer for us to screen through these partners which receive public dollars whether through contract to provide us the goods or and professional services or receiving grants. thank you.

>> i'm adding my voice to the chorus. i want to thank supervisor melgar and president peskin for scheduling this. in a lot of ways a contract this large for services this extensive and important to the city, it is unusual for us to have a hearing like this at the full board. on the other hand, this is time well spent because this non profit is essentially acting as a extension of the city and county of san francisco and spending our money, our workforce has interest in their workforce having every opportunity to be union. their clients are the people we are trying to serve have every interest in the people serving them being well

paid, having decent benefits and represented by a union and at the very least, we and all of the folks mentioned have a reasonable expectation there is neutrality around organizing efforts and it is troubling that this very important large non profit doing all this works seems to be unclear on what neutrality requires. folks showing up to talk to the people who work at felton and explain what a union is and what it does is not a unusual or strange thing. that is how it works. so, i just wanted to again, this is unusual. i don't think any of us want to see this go on longer. it feels it has gone on a very long and hope felton

would do everything it can to wrap this up in a way it works for the clients, employees and city and county of san francisco. >> supervisor dorsey. >> thank you. i wanted to add my voice to the chorus about this. in my 14 years in the city attorney's office i think one lessen i learned is when there are labor issues, it is a red flag of real problems and i-looking at some of the services that felton institute provides, we have to make sure that the workers are taken care of, because the work that is being done is incredibly important to the things we are trying to accomplish as a city, just looking at the care that for the recovery community, the reentry community, the thereare so many things and agree even if the employee employer relationship is different, it is a contractor thing.

we count on the non profit partners to be full partners and i want to make sure we are being a good contractor-if this was a city department, we would have serious concerns, so i want to express my appreciation for this hearing and also reiterate that i hope we don't have this hearing again and that these problems are solved. >> supervisor melgar. >> thank you very much president peskin. just to close up comments, i want to say thank you to colleagues for your very good questions and for your support of the workers. i wanted to point out on the record we did find a $25.600 payment to jackson lewis just for 6 month period between december 21 and june 22. we also found a flier that was produced with a felton logo that said do not find a card.

sometimes a union organizer will exaggerate or lie to get a card signed. not exactly neutral language. i will take a leap of faith saying this is new to folks and learn what net neutrality means, however the situation now is the contract expired with the existing union members, and felton has been very slow to schedule bargaining sessions once a month for 2 hours, now i understand those increased and that is great, so that is what we want. we want to make sure that there is good faith negotiation that the bargaining sessions are scheduled, increased, the workers are taken seriously, and we will be watching and we expect that that is going to happen. i will also just say that i am glad these issues are being aired here,

because usually the workers mostly women , people of color, many dont speak english that well-sometimes they don't know what they are doing and i think the workers are knowing exactly what they are doing. they are seeking better wages and working conditions and we should support that because that is what we all want. again, thank you so much for holding the session and i'm interested in hearing from the folks in public comment. >> any members of the public who would like to testify on item 25? line up to your right, my left. first speaker, please.

>> hello board of supervisors. i feel honored to have been asked to be here and to be speaking here. my name is steven--i work at the asian art museum across the plaza, and i work in a union shop. i work on the private side. i'm the chief shop steward for my chapter, and i'm here to be in support of the felton workers right to organize, and i want to give testimony from the other side of as a member of an organized shop, how important it is to be a union member, and to have our shop floor be union lead, worker lead and

have seiu 1021 behind us as we speak to our employer as equals. ultimately we union workers seek fairness. we just want basic fairness and a voice in our own working conditions. as far as what is happening at felton, the right to organize is a basic right of our society. as most of you have acknowledged here and i really appreciate that. it has been all most a hundred years that that right was established, and so we ask that this right be up held in whatever way that you can. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

>> hello, good afternoon. my name is (indiscernible) and i'm the union rep for the section of felton workers that we do represent over at bryant street. i am going to be reading today on behalf of a bargaining team member with a very difficult time able to get time off to attend, with the reason that there isn't enough staffing at the center for her to be able to take vacation time to appear. she says, my name is (indiscernible) and i have been a teacher with felton institute over at bryant street for 37 years. my experience these last couple years have been very difficult or probably the worst at felton where felton does not want to negotiate fairly with my union, and given that many good workers good teachers that i have met over the years have

quit the organization because they do not feel supported, nor valued in this organization. hiring has not kept up. instead we are using substitutes from agency with staff not fully trained for the services needed for the children in the early education program. the worst impact is that they-felton has withheld increases such as prop abc that was weaponized given to non union workers first withheld for those that are union. for that reason, the union is trying very hard to get to an agreement that includes a fair cost of doing business wage increase, and other benefits to all the people that

are still left behind. thank you. >> good afternoon supervisors. nigh my name is nicole christian cochair for 1021 and social economic justice committee chair. i am going to read a member statement who wanted to be here today but was denied release and vacation time by felton to attend this hearing. her name is maria schmidt. a head teacher since june of 2017 at the felton family development center. her statement reads, if your child was here at fdc, wouldn't you want stability for your child? the same teacher that shows up every day to create trust, create bond, create a

sense of security. that is the bear minimum i seek for my own child along with their safety. how can fdc offer this when we are so under-staffed? daily teachers are moved one classroom to another basically robbing peter to pay paul. our children in the most vulnerable year are forced to be with agency subs and variety of teachers. why? because felton created a toxic work environment. teachers here are leaving due to felton refusal to bargain in good faith because of poor treatment and bullying to those still here. why is felton not held accountable when they are so heavily funded by taxpayer dollars? we foal hopeless. who here can help us? we want your support. will you help us? that's the end of her statement. me personally, i am saying, you know who

they hire to bust a union. you know that city dollars are being used to bust a union. stop them. it is within your purview, it is within your ability. do not allow them to continue to harm felton workers. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon. i didn't introduce myself the first time. >> thank you supervisor melgar. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. sam mare death the chapter president at the tenderloin housing union. also a social worker working in the tenderloin. i was here 6 months ago with the

budget finance committee in october, and with all due respect the supervisors here i'm sure are sincere in desire to resolve this and fight through this, i think it is embarrassing and shameful we have to be here again 6 months said later and very little is resolved if anything. maybe things have gotten worse. so, i guess our challenge speaking on behalf of workers and colleagues in the audience is challenge the board to step up to the plate, perform their oversight ability to the best of their ability and to insure that-i was proud to be here 6 months ago and proud to be here now but dont want to be here again 6 months from now so want you to help do what you can to help felton worker to accomplish that task. thank you. >> good evening. i'm with sam, chief shop steward at the tenderloin-

>> sir, so we can hear you, can you speak into the microphone. >> nick, chief shop steward at the tenderloin housing clinic andpt to lend my support to the felton street people. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. welcome. next speaker. you have already spoken. thank you. >> good afternoon board. my name is lee hon and i work for the ark of san francisco on howard and 11 street. i happen to be chapter president at the ark and i want to speak about the fact that at the ark we have developed over the years last several years a very collaborative relationship with our management, and

this is my coworker, part of the management team. nina. she'll speak about that in a minute. we have and very proud to say this, we have a labor management committee, which is mandated through our contract, so we meet once a month and we talk about non contract type of issues that come up and day to day working. we have a agenda and talk over the issues and come to resolution and it's done. i am just-it is the linchpin i think the labor management committee is the linchpin of what we've managed to develop and you hear on the news about labor management

being adsusarial and adversarial and i'm here that we can collaborate. nina. >> ditto. i was told maybe three hours ago that our chapter president was going to talk about the seiu and no doubt in my mind to tell how it is smart business to do so, and we as a non profit also feel the strain of hiring right now. i will say working with the union we have experienced less then 3 percent turnover rates over the last 5 years which is unheard of in our field, and i would like to say a lot comes through the relationship and collaboration we joined with the union. one thing i think important to remember non profits is most of us our goal is to help our participants live in community and if we as employers are not allowing our workers to thrive and live and work in community, we are not following our mission, so here to support lee and give him a

ditto too. thanks. >> thank you for your comments. >> hi. thank you supervisors. my name is (indiscernible) lee. i was the chief negotiator for the contract with felton institute that included this contract neutrality agreement that said felton provide information to the union about non union workers, maintain new traltry in organizing efforts both of which felton violated by not providing the union the information about non union workers and threatening workers against joining the union which is probably the reason why we am to visit at their homes and because of all the violations the nationally labor relation board issued 8 complaints against felton including about the failure to provide information and violation of neutrality agreement. during this year negotiation, i'm also part of the bargaining team and felton has engaged in

bad faith in the entire process. our contract expired in june 2022. the union has been asking for the need to bargaining as early as march 2022 and felton cited excuses as a reason not to bargain until september 2022 well after the contract expiration and insisted that it is only able to meet 2 hours once every couple weeks and refuse to show financial information to help us understand the budget. we fuse the expand the contract and the continued status quo protection for the workers. most recently in november they unilaterally implemented their own economic proposal in the bargaining. dised regarding the right of the represented workers to have the union bargain for their contract. the union was forced to file a (indiscernible) fair labor prarkts for bad faith. the felton seems to have disregard to contract and

labor regard and rejected the (indiscernible) mediate the charges and get settlement with the union. not interested and rather go to hearing. it is clear felton feelatize is above law- >> thank you for your comments. >> hello, i'm a staff union organizing with 1021. here to read a statement on behalf of a former felton employeeing and 1021 member here this afternoon during her lunch break. during a break to show former felton employee as a early intervention teacher assistance from september 2021 to august 2022 after a year of surviving constant gas lighting and emotional abuse from

felton i quit my job. i like to paint a picture of my experience at felton. when i started the job not knowing puch about the union i received many threatening e-mails in bright red saying do not join the union. felton spread lies to staff scaring people to keep silent about unfair working condition. when i joined the union it tooked months to get 10 percent increase in wages. many meetings had to be held just to get my deserved retroactive pay. i like to preface i loved my coworkers, students and felton community and will always value their solidarity rchlt by the end of my time i was exhausted from repeated abuse (indiscernible) act incent. please do not allow them to be deceitful. i had many coworkers most immigrants of color getting paid $18.75. never in

the career received raises until the union stepped in. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. next speaker. >> good afternoon board. my name is (indiscernible) the organizing director at 1021. (indiscernible) head teacher floater hads been there 3 years. teachers are struggling every day in the classroom. we are short of staff, increase in teacher child ratio, extra duties such as dish washing inside the classroom, moving teachers from the primary classrooms to cover other classrooms. hiring people from other agencies isn't enough to cover as the teacher has the teach the agency the person daily routine. children and staff get lost as a new teacher comes to the classroom.

staffing is worse over the last 3 years. less teachers less space and more duties. thank you for your time. >> thank you for your comments. next speaker. >> my name is (indiscernible) i work at larasa, a small non profit here in san francisco in the mission district. i do removal (indiscernible) i wanted to talk about the value that the union has brought to our organization and elevating the positions that are traditionally lower paid within our organization. i wanted to highlight the fact that since our wages increased through yearly union wage reopeners we had no turnover in any of the non attorney staff positions and that is all thanks to the union and the forum it provides and the mechanism it provides. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. >> good afternoon.

i'm staff with 1021 who the pleasure organizer at felton the last 2 years. wonderful people when you see the teachers their faces light up when they see the kids. workers are proud to go in the field and do their job in san francisco. one thing i was brought up earlier is charges. the uop's they are multiple agents who took on the task. they did their due diligence by interviewing multiple works, multiple witnesses, months and months of due diligence of work, and this was past june 2022. they found merit in the charges against felton. i wanted to point out that i wonder what legal fees are out there, how much money they are spend ing in order to fight these ulp charges they have already been found to have merit so thank you for your time and thank you for

supporting these workers that really deserve it. >> supervisor melgar, thank you. president peskin thank you for agreeing to call this hearing and esteemed members of the board of supervisors. my name is josey (indiscernible) the deputy executive director of 1021. i know it is a extraordinary thing for you to have a committee of the whole, and we appreciate it. i also want you to know it is the most extraordinary organizing campaign i have been in in more then 40 years as a union organizer. it is unbelievable what this employer is doing to these works. you don't have to take it from us, take it from the national labor relation board which historically does not always, in fact in majority of time does not rule with the union. in this case, they have ruled with the union on 8

separate charges. that's a fact. it is a fact that felton denied raises to workers who are not in the union. sorry, denied raises to workers in the union and given to non union workers who refuse to join the union. that's a fact. city dollars. it is a fact that they refused to grant release time to come here today to testify before you, but in other hearings they paid relife time for workers who came to testify against the organizing efforts of our union. you don't see the workers at this union involved because the employer refused to let them come. i hope you rely on our word that the workers want a union, they deserve a union and have been fighting for a union for more then 5 years. r and it is simp simply

unacceptable. the alameda probation department in 2021 did a audit and found "significant deficiencies in staffing services and reporting in felton's operation of the core reentry program.". felton was placed on corrective action in alameda county and recently lost their bid to continue that contract. in fact, there were 4 bids and they came in 4th. that is a fact. and here is what some of the conclusions were: under-staffing, high turnover-we heard in testimony today that that is certainly the case in the san francisco locations for felton here. failure to hire a program director with the right qualifications. late and missing reports. failure to conduct program assessments. unsupervised clients. i could go on, there is a lot of reasons that they

didn't get their contract renewed. we stand here today to both thank you for having the hearing, and to request that you take whatever action you have under your authority to review their contracts, to insist on a audit of their contracts, to insist that any agency in the city and county of san francisco honor the right of workers to organize into our union or any other union of their choice and most of all, that you stand up for the-- >> thank you josey. >> thank you supervisor melgar for taking the lead on the hearing. thank you president peskin for convening. i just want to say and reiterate and

reemphasize shame on felton not being here today. we came in person, you are in person, you give them dollars and they choose to give the middle finger. that is what this is, let's be honest. it is the second time they have done this, this is a pattern now and they need to be stopped. the other point is, these chambers would have been packed today. they unleashed a reign of terrors. they are terrorizing the workers. the other issue is you have given them dollars. last year cost of doing business and prop c requires minimum rates that the workers are supposed to get. they provided-you gave them 5 percent cost of doing business. not a penny is passed to the workers. that is supposed to be passed to the workers. this employer is choosing to fight

its own employees using your tax dollars. dph gives over $12 million, hsh is second and (indiscernible) department of homelessness is 4th. 40 percent of the funding is through you, you approve the funding. they have this reign of terror in your name and think you are okay with what they are doing. president peskin and members of the board, we asking the-the felton signed a neutrality agreement with union and testified under oath they are neutral with regard to unionization. you heard early on they said when you asked have they-they said they don't know what happened. the union is choosing to fight them. what happened was, 2/3 workforce decided they wanted to unionize because of working conditions that they are providing the worst conditions for these workers to work under. so, nothing can be further from the truth

that the union is-the workers are choosing not to join 1021. felton institute after threatened with subpoena they paid $25 thousand to jackson lewis which according to the new york times is one of the most aggressively antiunion law firms thin u.s. (indiscernible) card that says do not sign this card (indiscernible) fined for violating union rules and other outrageous claims. meanwhile the nrb ruled felton violated-- >> thank you david. we understand david, your time is up. any members of the public who would like to comment on item 25 remotely? >> mr. lam.

>> former colleagues, ava (indiscernible) part of the large percent of felton employees that were pushed out of my work doing employment education service for individuals living with psychosis. . i was forced to leave due to low wages and poor working conditions and threat of losing my job if i were to unionize. i'm here to reiterate every my colleagues have said and hope the board holds felton accountable. i'm a taxpayer in san francisco and do not want to see my dollars

go towards union busting. thank you. >> that was the last caller. >> thank you. >> public comment on item 25 is closed. supervisor melgar. >> thank you so much president peskin i want to say thank you to all the workers and the folks allies supporting the workers for being here today and for making the extra effort to be here in person and hearing your stories from your own mouths. it is slaer much appreciated and very moving. i also want to say thank you to sarah richardson baker and to dr. (indiscernible) being with us today. i hope that you got a good sense of where this board is, and to convey to ceo al gilbert or deep disappointment at not able to engage at the budget hearing or this

current hearing today, because it is that important to us. were you go ing to say something madam clerk? alright. so, i also want to say that neutrality also means, don't mess with the workers. don't say, call the vote already when they are not ready. they decide when they are ready when the unionization efforts and you cannot use that against them which is something i repeatedly heard the administration do. going forward, i do promise you that we will be watching every contract that goes to the budget committee for felton institute that goes to the sf unified school district for felton institute. we will make sure that policy makers understand the issues and that i know the city attorney will tell me we can't mess with that

contract, but we will be watching and we will make sure that everything is considered before that contract is approved and to the departments who are awarding sole source contracts to organizations as my colleague supervisor stefani opponented out, -pointed out, we will be watchingism thank you and we will be watching and promise we will stay on top of this terrible situation that we do not want representing our dollars with city county of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you supervisor melgar. without objection, this hearing has been heard and filed. madam clerk, please read the committee reports? >> yes are. item 26 was considered by a regularly scheduled of land use and transportation committee at the meeting on monday april 24 and was recommended as amended with

the new title changing the legislation from motion to a resolution. item 26 now reads, resolution- >> [speaking in the background] >> resolution requesting the san francisco local agency formation commission to study future management options for the midtown park apartments and conduct a request for proposal for facilitator to conduct resident engagement process to inform the study. >> unless i'm mistaken i believe supervisor melgar is not sitting there, right? okay. i want to make sure she wasn't sitting there. madam clerk, please call the roll on the resolution that is now item 26? >> on item 26, dorsey,

aye. engardio, aye. mandelman, aye. melgar, absent. peskin, aye. preston, aye. ronen, aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, aye. chan, aye. there are 10 ayes. >> resolution is adopted and we will go to roll call for introductions. >> supervisor dorsey you are first up to introduce new business. submit. supervisor engardio. submit. supervisor mandelman. >> thank you madam clerk. today i am submitting a letter of inquiry to the city admin strairtd carmen chui for information technology asking coit to authorize

policy for unmanned drones in response to growing public safety threat of side shows. side shows as i'm sure you are aware are events drivers block off a intersection to take turns doing doughnuts and lawless behavior. you may have seen videos or smelled burned rubber-you have seen the markings and intersections across the city and the graffiti that goes up around these events. it is a growing problem in my district. i think growing problem-greater problem in many of yours. all too often the response is the same. dozens sometimes hundreds of vehicles and spectators take a intersection hostage late at night. the san francisco police department has to make a difficult choice in real time whether to

intervene with the calculation that intervention could create a more dangerous situation and if they do intervene the response is guide the drivers on the freeway and out of the city to carry dangerous behavioral in another jurisdiction. not satisfying and that is until they return to san francisco another night. in 2020 thanks to leadership of supervisor safai the board created a task force to crack down on dangerous side shows and over the past few years the san francisco police department stunt driving response unit stepped up the efforts to cite and impound vehicles uvvaed in side shows, also assisted by legislation carried by supervisor safai. i think we need more tools to deal with this and think there are tools that we could use to deal with this. unmanned aerial drones offer one potential solution. using officers to break up or chase vehicles and

individuals involved in side shows-using officers to break up or chase vehicles individuals involved in side shows, it is risky drones offer a safer alternative to the situation and identify license plates and individuals involved from a safe distance. other cities like oakland and los angeles authorize their police department to use drones, but san francisco police department is limited to using drones in very narrow circumstances. in 2019 when the board banned with limited exception the use of facial recognition technology the newly created chapter 19b of the administrative code required coit to develop review and approve policy for all surveillance technology used by city departments. we are all familiar with that. today i ask coit work with sfpd to prepare a surveillance

impact report and recommend the surveillance technology policy allowing the use of drowns for side shows for the board's approval. side shows pose imminent danger to the community and using surveillance technology like drones offer the safer alternative to investigate side shows without placing in danger particularly in cases severely out numbered. thank district attorney jenkins calling for the important policy change and supervisors melgar, (indiscernible) chui, san francisco police department and all you to make our streets safer and the rest i submit. >> thank you supervisor mandelman. spl visor melgar. >> thank you madam clerk. i just have a in memoriam today for mark- (indiscernible) i like to take the time to honor the life and legacy of mark

(indiscernible) cofounder and operator of the on the run shoe store in innersunset. began with humbled roots as he and family fled poll end to come to america seeking better life. after finding refuge in san francisco mark went through the san francisco unified school system and earned bachelor degree from san francisco state in 1976. couple years later when he and sisters were watching joggers they were inspired to create a shoe store. mark dedicated 44 years of life to transformer one of san francisco earliest specially stores for runners into a $44 years of life to transformer one of san francisco earliest specially stores for runners into a highly successful multi-million businessism passion for helping others was evidence providing high quality shoes and

customer service and made sure staff were knowledgeable and bio mechanics to insure top tier service and conducted three month training program that included shadowing and hands on experience for every member of his staff. what a loss to our community. mark unparalleled commitment to providing customers with attention and care made a significant impact. his presence will be greatly missed and memory will forever be survived by beloved family and friends. thank you. >> thank you supervisor melgar. supervisor peskin. >> submit. >> submit. thank you. supervisor preston. >> thank you madam clerk. colleagues, as many of you have heard governor gavin newsom announced friday he is directing the california highway patrol and california national guard into the

tenderloin extensively as response to the overdose and opioid crisis. deploying the military to a city neighborhood is a serious matter with many legal and policy implications and announcement that this may be happening should not be made or taken lightly. my office like members of the general public learned about the plans from the governor press release and media reports of the press release. over the weekday i reached out to various city leaders and department heads requesting that they share any information that they received regarding the governor's announced partnership so far have not received information that would shed light on what if anything the governor is actually planning. today i am sending a formal letters of inquiry to the mayor district

attorney, sfpd, dph and other departments to understand how the state is planning to work with the state entities and request details surrounding the agreements and deployment referenced by the governor in his announcement friday. i also sent letters to the governor, california highway patrol and california national guard requesting information. as supervisor for the tenderloin, my office is often the first point of contact for members of the community to learn about what is happening when it comes to government activity in their neighborhood. unfortunately we are not able to share meaningful information about the governor's plan and they are not able to provide meaningful input on those plans despite the potential significant impacts of these operations on their neighborhood. beyond the governor's announcement about sending the military

into the tenderloin, which at this point we have no idea as i mentioned what that will actually look like, beyond that i hope the governor will collaborate with city leaders to implement other crucial resources that help us make long-term progress, help save lives here in san francisco including the opening of a safe consumpson site, or multiple something to date the governor vetoed. work with us to provide real treatment on demand in san francisco, increased access to naloxone from the state and insuring people in the city have proper safety net supports to help focus on treatment and recovery when they are ready for it. i also asked the city attorney to brief our office on any legal parameters that might apply when the governor authorize military intervention into our

city under circumstances like these. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor ronen. >> thank you colleagues. in addition to the resolution that i spoke about earlier, i am introducing legislation today to fix a problem we deal with every year during the budget process. our non profit contractors are backbone of many city services and rely heavily to address homelessness addiction and (indiscernible) yet we know many organizations struggle to recruit and retain staff to do the difficult work in part due to inadequate funding and (indiscernible) major contributing factor is the fact city department said don't often issue multi-year grants or more importantly when they do issue multi-year grants, they don't do

it with automatic cost escalators or built in increases to cover the rate of inflation year to year increases in cost increase rents et cetera. this leaves the board every year fighting the middle of the night with the mayor to address the cost of doing business during the add-back process. the legislation i'm introducing today will address this issue. first it requires when the department knows a service is needed beyond one year, that department should be entering into multi-year contracts with non profits. additionally, the ordinance will require that the department automatically include the cost of doing business increase for each subsequent year of the contract so each service provider will know how much they will be paid moving forward. we hope this legislation brings security and confidence for the non

profit service providers and stability and allow them to better plan their finances on year to year bases as well as make the annual budget process easier for both the mayor office and board of supervisors. i want to thank all the non profits and are community groups that have been advocating for this permanent fix for many years and for input on this legislation. t special thank you to bren rosefeld and his team and controller office doing the heavy lifting behind this ordinance and thank santiago (indiscernible) from my office for working with the non profit community as well as seiu 1021 who represents many non profits as we learned today for input and work on the legislation. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor safai is out of the chamber. we'll

come back to him. supervisor stefani. submit. thank you. supervisor walton. >> thank you madam clerk. colleagues, today introducing a resolution in support of ab1226 to keep the families close authored by assembly haney. this requires the california department of corrections and rehabilitation to respect the rights of miner children to remain in contact can incarcerated parents. ab1226 requires (indiscernible) place a parent legal guardian (indiscernible) closest to the child's home. the bill also allows already incarcerated parents to request a transfer to prison closest to their child's home. parents and caregivers play a critical role in development of their children. data shows up to the age of 18, frequent contact between the child and their parent is crucial for the child behavioral and emotional development.

currently about 195 thousand children have incarcerated parent in california state prisons. due to the separation from their caregiver children with incarcerated parents experience unique issue s such as anti-social behavior and drug abuse. however, children who are able to maintain contact with parents experience less severe harmful impacts. in california, there are thousands of incarcerated parents placed more then 500 miles from their parents, from children. incarcerated mothers in particular struggle to maintain contact with their children. more then half incarcerated mothers do not receive visits from children while in prison and single most significant reason for lack of contact is children distance from their mother's prison. many are located far from major cities. in 2019, cdcr released information that only 25 percent of

incarcerated people in california state prisons are placed institutions less then hundred miles from home. the long distance place a burden on family without the financial means or time to travel across the state for visit. visitation falls the furtherer from home a person is incarcerated people percent of people less then 50 miles from home receive frequent visitation but 15 percent of people 500 miles away receive visitors. ab1226 will make it easier for children and incarcerated parents to maintain contact and build relationship while the parent is serving their term is in a institution closest to their child's home. this bill has bipartisan support from the state legislature and hope my colleagues also sign on to support this resolution. the rest i submit. >> thank you supervisor walton. supervisor chan. >> thank you madam clerk. colleagues i'm

introducing resolution recognizing celebrating may 2023 as asian pacific heritage month and honor the significant contribution of asian pacific american community and thank board president peskin working with all you in the office we are collectively hosting the asian pacific islander american heritage month commendation and reception may 2 next week in partnership with asian american pacific islander heritage foundation. mouth full. together it is a moment for celebration and the event will take place tuesday may 2, 11 a.m. and i look forward to learning and seeing all your honorees at the event on that day. but it is a moment that i urge you to also remember this

is a moment where aapi community remembering and celebrating our heritage. hate is ongoing and that i hope that we also take moment to figuring out and find ways to recognize those fears still in our community and provide that support-ongoing support. thank you. >> thank you. thank . you. last but not least, supervisor safai. submit. thank you. mr. president that concludes the introduction of new business. >> let's go to general public comment. >> at this time those in the chambers step up to the podium. we are setting the timer for 2 minutes. after this we'll go to those on the remote call in system. press star 3 when it is your time to speak and that will move you into making comments for general

public comment. welcome, sir. >> speaking of someone previously blast with the opportunity to assist in the successful relocation of many thousands of people from politically accommodations into temporary housing prior to permanent structures across the community, on a national basis while dismantling the housing temporary in succession, and under time constraint of less then a year the realization of what can be accomplished with relative-several skeleton crews on a meager budget comes from a personal experience (indiscernible) stark contrast in diametical opposition locally the 600 organizations public works contractors with ready access to significant public

funds can't. on the other hand present hurtles should be a sprint into a marathon. i had less then one year to carry out a project. it was completed ahead of schedule and below budget. the result of the absolute commitment and (indiscernible) and closing funding. in contrust, successive officials in san francisco had about 45 years with no end in sight to rectifyclaring problems. it may seem counter intuitive to present popular understanding careful skillful (indiscernible) spending local non profits and public works project should reduce the time in solving multitude of problems with cost that have grown increasingly out of hand over many

years. i think that is about it. >> thank you ken. next speaker, please. >> my name is (indiscernible) and i am a native san franciscans and active member of the armenian community. as you know, the armenian community commemorated the 108 anniversary of the genocide by turkey, which my grandparents survived so i can stand and be here in front of you today. i want to thank you for lighting city hall with the colors of the armenian flag in honor of the 1 and a half million souls that parished and standing against (indiscernible) the current 134 day blockaid of (indiscernible) where my students are not receiving much if any needed humanitarian aid and attacks on armenian school and church. if nothing is done by the international

community it will lead to a second genocide. i thank you for being on the right side of history. thank you very much. >> thank you. are there any other speakers in the board chambers? please come forward. >> i will be short. please please please, whatever you do, whatever project-be extremely aware of the technology is pushed at us with very-- (indiscernible) effect on society. it is very important to always keep that in mind. it is necessity to keep that in mind. technology will be the big problem to deal with. >> any remote public comment for general public comment at today meeting madam clerk? >> i believe we have 3 in the queue and 5 listening.

mr. lam, let's hear from the first caller. >> good evening board of supervisors, president peskin, mapdm clerk, this is gilbert. i want to talk transit today. muni only cares about fare hikes and cutting service. last night on the news it was reported that san jose received a $50 million grant from the state of california to expand their lightrail service. all it other counties around san francisco is expanding bus and lightrail services, san francisco continues to cut and rip out bus stops every day. what is going on with the malfunction, dysfunction that is muni? it is in a death spiral. we need our state legislators and

federal legislators to give money to muni and to save muni and fix muni. we need the board to fix muni and have free muni for everyone. the national guard should be used to drive muni buses. if there is a muni driver shortage. use the national guard to drive buses. thank you, madam clerk. >> thank you. mr. lam, let's hear from the next caller, please. >> hi. this is mina young, a long time san franciscans and small property owner and a member of business and housing network. we have thons of mom and pop housing providers who have to provide housing service even without pay for three years. i was very

appalled at the supervisors pass the extension of the eviction ban- >> (indiscernible) i'm pausing your time. that is item 4 on our agenda. that item did go through committee. it did have its public comment period satisfied that wouldn't have occurred at this board meeting, so if you could just direct your comments to something more general and away from that item, i will now reset your time. please continue. >> okay. my question is, the funding has not been clear and the supervisors were not able to answer whether that will cover the entire pandemic, because a lot of us are not getting paid, so please have the end date right now

and process the funding to the providers, the housing providers who are owed rent. the time is of the essence. please make them whole because their livelihoods all in jeopardize. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. let's hear from the next caller, please. >> yes goon afternoon. peter warfield. (indiscernible) san francisco california 94117-0544. also libraries users 2004@yahoo.com. this is national library and california library week, and it is important to appreciate and support libraries as a tremendous valuable and fantastic resource for helping all of us to enjoy and

understand our lives, our society, our politics our culture. freeachyual access is a terrific slogan for the san francisco public library. many other liberies have the same concept, special public libraries. the way that the library works more and more is not providing free and equal access to everybody. when books are available be read by everybody and e hp bookerize not, that is a issue of access and library is spending more and more on e-books now about equal to print books but most formats are not available to people who pay to play and that hurts the vulnerable populations the most, minorities, older people, poor people and so on. likewise programs at the library in san francisco are more and more available via electronic access

without even letting people know you can also participate by telephone for example a zoom meeting. fines and fees have long been advocated to be gotten rid of as much as possible because they are barriers to access, (indiscernible) found the policy on poor people service at the ala. these should be all eliminated or alternates made available. >> thank you for your comments. let's hear from the next caller, please. >> hello. thank you for having me (indiscernible) local business owner in the mission district and moved here for the flatness relative to the rest of the city and ease of mobility and my child. i appreciate the capacity to call in, we should continue this

program and make sure people continue to call in remotely but there is a certain utility able to show up in person. as i commute in the city by skateboard primarily because it is low cost, low maintenance rblsh highly portable and integrate well with other modes of transportation, i was shocked to find at the recent attendance to sfmta meeting focused on transportation i am not allowed in the building with my skate board. as it was (indiscernible) asked to go to the library and check my skateboard in. i skated a quarter mile, checked in, walked back a quarter mile. the meeting was out at 6:30 and library closed at 6 so had to walk home. the next time i showed up for public works the library wasn't open. (indiscernible) the building management did allow me to store the skateboard in the office. i was the only person who showed up persont a the

meeting. one other person called in. i am told it is historical building so concern of danger. (indiscernible) and not legislated against. people get killed by cars all the time and none the less not (indiscernible) cars run into buildings all the time and not legislated against. my capacity to park in civic engage in person because of my mobility device of choice and discouragement due to the historical nature of the build was (indiscernible) i urged you all to consider parking for skateboards and small wheel mobility devices that is publicly available within city hall so people can become civically engaged. thank you very much. >> thank you for your comments. let's hear from the next caller, please. >> hello. this is mia (indiscernible) san francisco resident

and (indiscernible) this is going to do so much to spread more awareness about stuttering, a speech disability that we still see made fun of in tv and movies. this is traumatizing young kids including myself who has a lifelong stutter, so just means a lot in helping recognize the stuttering community and helping get the state (indiscernible) thank you so much. >> thank you for your comments. let's hear from the next caller, please. >> hello hello hello.

san francisco here. (indiscernible) some of the communications here. anyway, hello citizen 22. we haven't heard from you for a while so hello. hope all is well. the three things is dialogue, education, mental illness, the dialogue we have to get more engaged with the agendas. keep the brown act laws involved that call out every agenda item in case public needs to make comment. also, really want to focus on empathy too. when voting on some of these initiatives, proclamations, ordinances, really want to think about the big picture who it will impact, what neighborhoods it will impact and think about the community. in the prior meetings were about the community speaking up about

ordinances and proclamations and where the shops will be so very important. respect for the city and those that have been around for a while and just understand that from our perspective we are not always trying to beat people up, we are trying to make a cleaner safer more livable city for everyone and that includes the high tech guys trying to do business with the city so be open to the city to make san francisco a better town, better city more livable for everyone. please keep that in mind when you go through these. and obviously finally, big thanks to the community. they really stepped up on a couple hearings. i heard their voices loud and clear, so it doesn't matter if there is a language barrier. their voices were definitely heard very well. thanks. >> thank you for your

comments. >> that was the last caller in the queue. >> okay. thank you. >> public comment is closed. would you like to make in person public comment? no, public comment is closed. madam clerk, please read the adoption without committee reference calendar? >> item 29-35 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee. unanimous vote is required for resolutions on first reading today. a member may require resolution on first reading to go to committee. >> would any member like a item or item severed? >> item 35 president peskin. >> item 35. supervisor stefani. >> thank you, i like to cosponsor items 29, 30 and 31. >> shall be noted. supervisor preston. >> item 31, please. >> item 31. supervisor ronen. >> sever 32 and 33. >> alright. on the balance of the calendar, item

number 29, 30 and 34 [microphone not on. >> mr. president, we cannot because supervisor melgar was out of the room previously. on 29, 30, 34, supervisor dorsey, aye. engardio, aye. mandelman, aye. melgar, aye. peskin, aye. preston, aye. ronen, aye. safai, aye. stefani, aye. walton, aye. chan, aye. there are 11 ayes. >> those resolutions are adopted and motion approved. please read item 31? >> item 31 is

resolution to support california state assembly resolution 59 to designate the week of may 8-13, 2023 as 2023 stuttering awareness week. >> last year this boardue naninously adopted a resolution making san francisco the first city in california to recognize stuttering awareness week in recognition of speech disability that effect 70 million world wide and 8 thousand san franciscans. proud to see advocates carried the momentum into a state wide effort. the result of which is assembly concurrent resolution 59 authored by member robert rivas designating may 8-13, 2023 as stuttering awareness week in california. if passed the assem bly resolution would make california the

first state in the country to recognize stuttering awareness week and the resolution before us today continues to keep our city on the forefront of disability justice by urging the state to take action. thank (indiscernible) who called earlier in public comment of the san francisco based proud stutter pod cast for her advocacy for the stuttering community in san francisco and state wide and also want to thank and recognize johnny pena working on the resolution working to recognize at the state level. thank you. >> supervisor walton. >> like to be added a cosponsor. >> noted. same house same call, the resolution is adopted. item 32, please. >> item 32 declare the week of april 24-30 daniel ellsberg week in city county of

san francisco in honor of lifelong advocacy to achieve peace, prevent nuclear war- >> government activities to the people of the united states and rest of the world. worked on projects for the military and rand corporation, he became disturbed by u.s. government deceit public during the vietnam war. the pent gone papers revealed the u.s. government during 4 administrations deceived the news media and american people about the policy and actions in vietnam. bold action exposed dangerous pattern of lies to the u.s. public and

working of the u.s. government. the release of the papers provided critical information that strengthened the anti-war and nuclear move: these movements continued in the advocacy. danium ellsberg devoted 50 years of life to activism research writings and teaching about nuclear conflict scholar and author on some of the most important issues facing the planet and all who inhabit the earth. he has supported encouraged and (indiscernible) [speaker speaking too fast] and hold government institutions accountable despite great personal risk to his own life. daniel ellsberg is a true american (indiscernible) and education about

the risk of nuke yrm war and global conflict. thank you president peskin and surpriser med gar and preston to cosponsor this and hope you will join to pass the resolution. >> my honor. same house same call the resolution is adopted. item 33. >> resolution to direct the clerk of the board to purchase 20 copies of matthew desmond book poverty by america as necessary educational context for the city budget process. >> supervisor ronen. >> colleagues, i passed out amendment tuesday ed to item that turn the resolution into motion opposite of what supervisor preston did earlier, so hope you will support this as a motion instead of resolution. thank you. >> motion to amend made by supervisor ronen, seconded by supervisor stefani, without objection and on the item as amended same house same call,

the motion is-the motion is adopted as amended. madam clerk, please read item 35. >> item 35, motion to appoint kurt grimes to park recreation and open space advisory committee term ending february 1, 2025. >> supervisor walton. >> i want to provide background. decade kirk grimes served the bayview hunter point community. am grimes is a part of the community team working with rec and park to bring a state of the art open space to the southeast at india basin along with affordable house. mr. grimes spends time educating and mentoring youth also leading the efforts getting more young people engaged in the democratic process by arginizing get out the vote campaigns and importance of voting. mr. grimes (indiscernible) administrative skills during the 10 year career with west league publish ing as

a law librarian and customer service manager. mr. grimes graduated with bachelor of arts in european history with regional planning from berkeley. i want to thank mr. grimes for being willing to serve and continuing to step up for the community. >> same house same call, the motion is approved and madam clerk, please read the in mumowier >> adjourn on behalf of supersurpriser melgar for the late mark walkter and behalf of supervisor peskin late john lampkin. >> we are adjourned. [meeting adjourned]

>> my name is sylvia and i'm the owner of the mexican bistro. we have been in business for 18 years and we first opened on garry street in san francisco, and now we are located in a beautiful historic building.

and we are part of the historical building founded in 1776. at the same time as the mission delores in san francisco. (♪♪) our specialty food is food from central mexico. it's a high-end mexican food based on quality and fresh ingredients. we have an amazing chef from yucatán and we specialize on molotov, that are made with pumpkin seeds. and we're also known for handmade tortillas and we make our own fresh salsa. and we have cocktails, and we have many in the bar. we have specialty drinks and they are very flavorrable and very authentic.

some of them are spicy, some are sour, but, again, we offer high-quality ingredients on our drinks as well. (♪♪) we have been in san francisco for 27 years, and our hearts are here. we are from mexico, but after 27 years, we feel part of the community of san francisco. it is very important for us to be the change, the positive change that is happening in san francisco. the presidio in particular, they're doing great efforts to bring back san francisco, what it was. a lot of tourism and a lot of new restaurants and the new companies. san francisco is international and has a lot of potential. (♪♪) so you want to try authentic mexican food and i invite you to

come to our bistro located on 50 moroo avenue in presidio. and i'll wait here with my open arms and giving you a welcome to try my food. (♪♪) >> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪♪♪]

>> we really wanted to find a way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here.

she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be up-to-date and redone totally. >> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about

placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. >> he has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not

what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month before she came through. she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing. we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate

class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our

male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate.

having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know when it's okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [♪♪♪] >> my name is tiffany cobb and i work for the san francisco fire department. i was raised by a single parent. i grew up with a very strong work ethic mental

ity. i would like to compare it to a bar back and anticipated the needs and the call. you will provide the needs and complete the call. >> the favorite part of the job is when i can actually connect with a patient and utilize your people skills as a human being. sometimes it's not a medical need. they just want someone to talk to, someone to listen to and want to be seen as a person and want to be recognized and see them as they are. those are my important calls. i

remember being a seven or nine year old girl and never seen anyone like me in a fire engine and that gave me hope that i can do that. there are people like me that can do that job. sometimes people need to feel nurtured and feel safe. i feel like i can bring that to my patients. >> you maybe feel afraid. just try it out. that's what i did. just never give up. i was told no. i failed the fire academy. i'm still here and i never quit. just learn from your mistakes and never give up on yourself. i'm in station 49. eventually i

would like to utilize my skills as a fire paramedic and hopefully become an officer some day. >> for san francisco, i said this in my interview, it's like the new york of the west coast. it has everything i wanted to be a part of. it has ems and has a rich history and blue collar history which i absolutely love. i want to be a part of that.

you're watching san francisco rising with chris manners.

special guest is david chu. hi i'm chris manners and you're watching san francisco rising the show that's about restarting rebuilding and re imagining our city. i guess today is david chiu, the city attorney for the city and county of san francisco , and he's here today to talk to us about the opioid crisis, reproductive rights and the non citizen voting program. mr chu, welcome to the show. thanks for having me on happy to talk about whatever you want me to talk about, so can we start by explaining the difference between the city attorney's office and the district attorney's office? i think it could be slightly confused. that is a very common fusion with members of the public so um, if you get arrested in san francisco by the san francisco police department, all criminal matters are dealt with by the san francisco district attorney . we handle all civil matters on behalf of the city and county of san francisco. what that means

is a number of things. we provide advice and counsel to all actors within city government from our mayor. every member of the board of supervisors to the 100 plus departments, commissions boards that represent the city and county of san francisco. we also defend the city against thousands of lawsuits. so if you slip and fall in front of city hall if there's a bus accident if there is an incident involving the san francisco police department, we defend those matters. we also bring lawsuits on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, where most famous for litigating and obtaining the constitutional right to marry for lgbtq couples have sued gun manufacturers, payday lenders, oil companies, you name it, who are undercutting the rights of san franciscans and the city and county of san francisco. so now moving on to the opioid crisis. i understand you've had some success in court, um, dealing with manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies. could you

elaborate a little bit on that for us, so the opioid industry and by that i refer to the legal industry that prescribes pain pills. um over years. uh, deceived americans and resulted in literally thousands upon thousands of deaths and tragedies that we see on our streets every day when it comes to the addictions that folks are experiencing. many of the addictions really stemmed from what happened over a decade plus period where the prescription pain industry marketed prescription pills in ways that were false. we were one of thousands of jurisdictions around america that brought a lawsuit against the opioid industry. but we've had a particular set of successes that others have not. ah we initially brought a lawsuit a few years ago against every part of the opioid supply chain, and that included manufacturers, distributors and retailers,

including pharmacies over the course of four plus years. a number of these corporate defendants settled with us. we've as of this moment brought in over $120 million of cash and services. to the city to help address the root causes of what we're talking about. but a few months ago, we had a really historic verdict against the pharmacy, walgreens and their role walgreens was responsible for literally over 100 million pills, flooding the streets of san francisco over a period of years where they flouted federal law that require them to track where they're pills were going to. they had a what? what we refer to as a phil phil phil. pharmacy culture where folks would bring in their prescriptions, and the pharmacist would just fill them without checking why someone was coming in multiple times without checking why certain doctors were seen a 100 fold increase in the number of opioid

prescriptions that they were prescribing. so we had a historic judgment against walgreens recently, but it's been a very intense lawsuit. and we know that will never bring back the lives that we have lost to opioid addictions. but it's critical for us that we get the resources that we need. maybe one other thing i'll mention because it's often confusion. a large percentage of folks who are addicted to street level drugs say heroin or fentanyl started their addictions. with painkillers, opioid medications that were prescribed through doctors provided through pharmacies and so literally the suffering that we're seeing on our streets was caused by the opioid industry over many, many years and has created the significant crisis that we are dealing with right now. right right now moving on. i understand after the recent supreme court ruling, striking down robust as wade that you've put together an organization that's designed to help mm.

provide free services to people who are both. seeking abortions and providing them can you tell us about the organization? sure so, um, before the dobbs decision came down, but after we learned about the leak from the supreme court about the draft that suggested the decision would be as bad as it has turned out to be, um, i reached out to leadership from the bar association of san francisco because we knew that if that decision came down there would be tens of thousands of patients around the country as well as providers whose legal situation would be in jeopardy. women doctors, nurses who could be subjected to lawsuits who could be arrested who could be prosecuted, particularly in red states? 26 states where rights are being rolled back or in the process or have already been rolled back because of the dobbs decision. so we put out a call to lawyers all over the bay and frankly, all over the country, and as of this moment there have been over 70 law firms that have

answered our call to be part of the legal alliance for reproductive rights who have committed to reviewing cases and providing pro bono assistance to patients and providers who are at legal risk. we also are looking at potential cases that these lawyers can bring against various states. in these areas that are looking to deprive women and patients and providers of their of their rights. um it is a very dark time in america, and i'm really proud that that barrier attorneys, the legal community care have stepped up to answer the call. it's very important that's great. so now the non citizen voting program that was passed by voters just for school boards has faced them court challenges recently, but it was in place for the most recent election that we've had. how do you see that situation panning out? in fact, it's been in place for now. five school board elections. um so a little bit of background in our san francisco schools over one out

of three kids. has a parent who is a non citizen who doesn't have a say in the election of the policy makers that dictate the future of our san francisco public schools, and so over a number of years, there has been a movement to allow immigrant parents to vote in school board elections. few things i'll mention about that is our country has a very long history when it comes to allowing immigrants to vote. from 17 76 for 100 and 50 years until after world war. one immigrants were allowed to vote in most states in our country on the theory that we want to assimilate immigrants in american democratic values and institutions, and it wasn't until an anti immigrant backlash in world war one that that sort of ended. but in recent years, um cities across america have allowed this to happen. in fact, at this moment, believe there are over a dozen cities that have voted to allow non citizens to vote in a number of context.

now, this is particularly important in our schools just given how challenge our schools are, and given that we know that when we engage more parents in her school system, regardless of their citizenship it helps to lift up our schools for all parents. and so in 2016 the voters of san francisco past about measure that allowed this to happen. unfortunately earlier this year, there were conservative organizations that came to san francisco to bring a lawsuit to try to overturn this , and i should also mention it is obviously the perspective of our office and our city that this is constitutional. nothing in the constitution prohibits non citizens from voting. and in fact, there's an explicit provision in the constitution that allows chartered cities like san francisco when it comes to school board elections to be able to dictate the time and manner of those elections. and so, uh, we are involved in litigation on this issue. there was an initial ruling that was not good for us that essentially

said at the trial court level. we shouldn't allow this. um we appealed it up to the appellate level. the appellate court made an initial decision to allow this past november election to proceed as it has for the last previous four elections. we're going to be in front of that court soon. stay tuned. we'll see what happens. it was good to hear that the city was able to reach a settlement with the center for medicare and medicaid services are meant laguna honda could still operate. how did you manage to reach that agreement? it was not an easy conversation . just a little bit of background. so laguna honda has been an incredibly important institution in san francisco for 150 years, taking care of our most vulnerable patients are frail, very elderly patients, many of whom are at end of life. and a few years ago, there were some issues in that hospital. some violations of rules that we very much want to make sure don't get violated. there were folks that weren't using proper ppe, who are bringing cigarette

lighters into the facility, who might have brought some contraband into the facilities. we have zero tolerance for that and have made that very clear. we self reported some of these violations to the federal authorities. and unfortunately from our perspective, they took the very disproportionate step of ordering the closure. the permanent closure of lugano, honda. problematic on a number of reasons. first and foremost, there are just no skilled nursing facility beds not just in california but around the country. after their order came down. we literally were putting 1000 calls a day to skilled nursing facilities around california and around the country and could find nowhere to move the 700 patients that we had had in the gonna honda but just as disturbingly as we were forced to start moving some of these patients, a number of them died. there's a concept in medicine known as transfer trauma. when you move someone who is that frail and unfortunately, folks folks died

and we were at a point where we were five weeks away from the deadline for the federal government. that they had provided to us to close the facility. so uh and we have been trying for months to get the federal government to reconsider their action, so i was compelled to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the city and county of san francisco and very pleased and appreciate that we were able to come to a settlement whereby transfers will be delayed at least until next year. we're going to have at least a year of funding. to keep the facility open, and hopefully we can get back up on our feet and ensure that no future violations occur because this is an institution that has to stay open for the good of these patients. quite right, quite right. so finally, congratulations on winning an important public power service dispute with pg and e. um why is it important that the city's rights as a local power provider maintained well, so san francisco has been a local power provider for decades. we are

fortunate to have access through our hedge hetchy hydroelectric system to provide electricity to a number of providers, particularly public recipients of that. and unfortunately, pg any has used its monopoly when it comes to private electricity to try to stop that, and to block that, and from our perspective, they violated federal law in adding literally tens of millions of dollars of expenses to san francisco and institutions that we're trying to ensure um, public power infrastructure. put years of delays on our ability to do this, and so we had to bring a number of appeals in the federal commission. ah we were successful in those appeals, and there was a decision recently that basically held the pg and e could not use its monopoly to unfairly delay or add tens of millions of dollars of cost. to the city and county of san francisco, as we are trying to move forward with our vision of public power. clearly pgd has

not been able to serve not just san francisco but northern california. well we all know that with the wildfires with its bankruptcies, with all the issues that they've had, we think there is a different model to move forward on and we are grateful to the court. and providing a ruling that allows us to move forward. well thank you so much for coming on the show. i really appreciate the time you've given us here today. i appreciate and thanks for your thanks for your questions. thank you. well that's it. for this episode, we'll be back with another one shortly for sf gov t v. i'm chris manners. thanks for watching. yeah. >> this is a meeting of recreation and park commission, please call the roll. >> commissioner buell. >> here. >> grif en.

>>er