maidm >> supervisor mandelmand morning, everyone. and welcome to the public safety and neighborhood services committee. i am raphael mandelman, president of the committee, and i am joined by supervisor catherine stefani and shamann

walton. mr. carroll, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes, i do, mr. president. thank you. the board of supervisors legislative chamber and committee room are closed. this is taken pursuant to all local orders, resolutions, and directives. public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. both cable channel 26 and sfgovtv.org are streaming a public call-in number at this time. your opportunity to speak and provide comments during the public comment period are available by phone by calling 415-655-0001. once prompted, enter the meeting i.d. for today's meeting. today's meeting i.d. is 146-044-5940. then press the pound symbol

twice to be connected to the meeting. once connected, you'll hear the meeting discussions but be muted and in listening mode only. when you hear your item, dial star, three to enter the speaker line. please wait until the system indicates you've been unmuted and then begin your comments. best practices are to speak from a quiet location, speak slowly and clearly, and turn down your television or electronic device. alternatively, you may submit your public comments in either of the following ways. you may e-mail me. my name is john carroll, and i am clerk of the public safety and neighborhood services committee. my e-mail is

john.carroll@sfgov.org. if you send an e-mail, it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. you may alternatively, submit your comments by united states postal service. finally, items acted upon today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda on november 3, 2020, unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, mr. clerk. please call your first item. >> clerk: item 1 is a hearing to consider that the transfer of a type-48 on sale general public comments liquor license to electrocelt promotions ink, doing business as swig at 553-561 geary street will serve the public convenience or necessarily of the city and

county of san francisco. mr. chair? >> supervisor mandelman: do we have our representative from the a.l.u. here? >> clerk: i believe he's on the line. >> good morning, supervisors. officer maki here, representing a.l.u. i have a report for swig. they have applied for a type-48 and type-47 license, and if approved, this would allow them to sell on-line liquor sales and spirits. they are located in zone 4, considered a high crime area.

central station has no opposition to this license, and a.l.u. approves with the following recommended conditions. sales of liquor shall be permitted between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. each day of the week. petitioners shall actively monitor the area to prevent the loitering of any persons on the property adjacent to the licensed premised as depicted on the a.b.c. 253 form, and the consumption of alcohol off the premises are prohibited. these are the conditions signed by the applicant on october 10. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. good morning, mr. sheehy. you are the applicant. >> good morning, supervisor. i'm glad that we have supervisor peskin here, too.

>> supervisor mandelman: supervisor ronen is here, also. >> we have been operating at swig with our full operating liquor license with a full operating bar. the request is to expand our swig unit to the adjacent unit, called the olympic cafe. the olympic cafe has been in business over 30 years. we took over operations of the olympic cafe in 2019. at that time, we added a beer and wine license, and we continued to operate, serving breakfast and lunch. we are now in the process of combining both businesses, where we will be able to offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner when the city opens back up to the many guests who come to us from the neighboring hotels, the neighboring residences. even theater events will be happening, and most importantly, for the moscone convention center. there is a need for evening

dinner service at this location as many restaurants no longer offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. we completed quite a bit of community outreach in 2019 when we applied for our beer and wine license. as part of this application, our community outreach was restricted to mailing and posters. we mailed all of our residents within a 1,000-foot radius. we meet with residents individually, and the result was that we upgraded some of our windows at the rear of the swig and the olympic cafe premises to ensure there's going to be zero opportunity for sound to emanate from our premises into the neighboring spaces. we've been in the location for 15 years and i was a member of the tenderloin police advisory board until last year.

we are very aware of our hot buttons in our neighborhood here. we've had no protests to the expansion, and we're hoping that you can approve this expansion today because it would serve the convenience for a drink after a great show in the theater district. >> supervisor mandelman: okay. i don't see any of my colleagues that have raised their hand, so let's open this up for public comment. >> clerk: mr. qiu, could you please open up the link for

public comment. if you wish to call in for public comment, follow the instructions that are streaming on your screen right now. that would be by calling 415-655-0001, then entering 146-044-5940, pressing pound twice, and then star, three to enter the line to speak. >> operator: we have one caller in the queue. >> supervisor mandelman: we ask that you state your first and last name clearly and that you speak slowly and clearly into the phone. in the interests of time, we encourage speakers to avoid repeating previous statements. let let's hear from our first caller. >> my name is michael nolte,

and i am a community organizer and also the director of a better district six. i did do a site visit on behalf of my organization to swig and i did talk with the organization sponsor, brian sheehy, and they plans for a type-48 license. and then, i did talk to my community partners as well as my organization and to follow up on what we wanted to do with this type-48, and we came up with a recommendation that the alliance for district 6 supports better future bars.

our organization was involved in the first bar that was on sixth street, and we collaborated on various issues in the past and current around improving transit lines, public safety, night life entertainment, permits on development plans -- permits as well as development plans. so the alliance for a better district six is in full support of swig's request for approval, their request by both a.b.c. and the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm speaking as a personal endorsement as well as a 45-year-old community organizer and leader in affiliation of

over 30 organizations and board of directors in san francisco. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, mr. nolte. do we have any other callers? >> clerk: mr. qiu, could you connect us to the next caller, please? >> operator: mr. chair, that completes the queue. >> supervisor mandelman: great. public comment is now closed. i understand that supervisor haney is supporting this license transfer, so i think we can direct our clerk to find resolution that we approve and that it meets public

necessarily. >> clerk: on the motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> supervisor mandelman: congratulations, mr. sheehy. mr. clerk, call the next item. >> clerk: item 2 is a hearing to consider that the trafr of a type-21 off-sale general beer, wine, and distilled spirits liquor license to suhal suhalla farhat, doing business as grab&eat, located at 3499 mission street, will serve the public convenience or necessarily of the city and county of san francisco.

mr. chair? >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, mr. clerk. officer mackey? >> all right. thank you. moving forward, you guys have the a.c.m. before for you for grab & eat. there are zero letters of support, zero letters of protest. they are located in plot 367, which is considered a low crime area. census tract 63, which is a high saturation area. a. a.l.u. recommends approval with the following conditions: monitoring the property so there are no loitering persons on the adjacent property, and it should be noted that the applicant has agreed to the

above listed conditions. >> supervisor mandelman: great. thank you, officer mackey. do we have the officer or representative here? >> clerk: mr. chair, i do not see that mr. farhat has connected to the call or anyone who has identified themselves as a representative of the applicant. >> supervisor mandelman: well, let's take some public comment. >> clerk: sounds good. mr. chair, operations is checking now to see if there are any callers in the queue. mr. qiu, please let us know if there are any callers ready. for those who have not done so already, please press star, three to enter the queue. for those who have done so already, please wait until the system indicated you have been

unmuted. if you have not already done so, you may call in by following the instructions streaming across your screen. calling 415-655-0001, and then meeting i.d. 146-044-5940. press pound twice, and star, three to enter the queue to speak. >> operator: mr. chair, there are no public commenters waiting to speak. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. public comment is closed. i understand that supervisor ronen is supportive of the transfer of this license. supervisor ronen, if you're on, you're welcome to say anything, or i will go ahead and -- >> supervisor ronen: i'm supportive. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: awesome. thank you. so i will -- i think we can direct our clerk to find a resolution finding that this

license transfer will serve public convenience and necessarily, and i will move that we forward that to the full board with a positive recommendation. mr. carroll, please call the roll. >> clerk: on that motion -- [roll call] [please stand by] .

>> chair: do we have someone on the line? >> if approved this license will allow them to operate an off-sale beer and wine sales. they are lotted in plot 518, which is considered a low crime ar area. the northern station has no opposition to this license and a.l.u. recommends approval with

the following conditions. that the petitioner shall monitor the area in their control to prevent the loitering of persons as dpiblegted on the a5epicted on the a53 form. it should be noted that as of october 15, the applicant has agreed to and now signed the above recommended conditions. >> thank you, officer mackey. do we have the applicant here? >> i am here. thank you for having me. i will just give a quick overview of luke's local. we've been in business for about 10 years, a full-service grocery sto

store. we started making foods out of a kitchen and delivering to homes and offices with c.s.a. produce and local foods and breads and coffee back in the day. that expanded in 2016 to a brick-and-mortar grocery store in cole valley. we took over a bodega's that was there for about 30 years. we're excited to get our hands into the retail space. this has been a great way to integrate with the community. in the early days of doing work behind the scenes and connecting the community with good-quality food. we didn't have the opportunity to have that good connection on one picture on a website that people would order from. to us, that is an important piece. the cole valley space has become a great hub of that community.

we've been very fortunate to find a space on union street and want to offer that same kind of anchor tenant to that neighborhood. we're applying for a type-20 beer and wine license to go along with every other aspect that we consider full grocery. i did sign off on the conditions. i'm happy to sign off on that. they're reasonable and something we would want to pursue anyway. >> chair: vice chair stephanie, if you would like to make any remarks. >> i would like to. thank you for the opportunity. first, i would like to thank officer mackey for his work and thank luke for all the work he's put into finally bringing a

neighborhood health professional serving grocery store at this location. we've been trying to get luke's into cal hollow for over two years now. when i first met luke, i was so impressed, and i can't tell you how lucky we are to welcome him to our neighborhood. it is an incredible grocery store founded on equity and community service. luke's local sources source their inventory from local providers, including san francisco-based artisan s artis also source their produce from the same farms that we regularly see at our farmers' markets. it's great to be eight months into the pandemic and celebrate the opening of a new small business. we need businesses like luke's

local to lead the recovery and they will provide a full-service grocery to an area that one have one, draw foot traffic to the union street corridor, and provide many jobs. they have nearly 20 jobs on their website for their new cal hollow location alone. i would say luke's will serve the community. this is an exciting day, one step closer to serving this community. i can't wait until the doors are open. this is going to be great. >> thank you so much for saying that on my behalf too and on all that you've done. >> thanks, luke.

let's open this up for public comment. >> clerk: for those who have already connected to our meetings by phone, press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until you begin. you will hear a prompt. for those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or through the website. if you want to call in, follow the instructions on your screen, by dialling 415-655-0001, when pre-empted entering the meeting i.d. of 146 044 5940 and then by pushing the pound symbol twice, you will connect to the queue. mr. coo, could you connect us to our first caller if there is one there. >> mr. chair, there are no

callers in the queue. >> chair: public comment is now closed. i think we can direct our committee clerk to prepare a resolution that [indiscernibl [indiscernible] -- recommendations. >> yes. so moved, since you just said it all. [ roll call ]. >> chair: the motion is passed. congratulations. >> clerk: hearing to consider that the transfer of a type-48 on-sale general public premises liquor license to sool partners, llc, doing business as sool bar as part of hotel 32one, located at 321-323 grant avenue (district 3), will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county

of san francisco. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this hearing should call the public comment number. that number is still 415-655-0001, enter the meeting i.d. for today's meeting of 146 044 5940. press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press star to enter the queue to speak. a system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. wait until you are prompted that you are unmuted. that will be your opportunity to speak. >> last but not least we have sool at 32. they have applied for a license to sell-off sales. they are located in plot 158, which is considered a high-crime area. they are in census track 117

which is a high saturation area. a.l.u. approves with the following conditions. no noise audible near any residence. petitions shall monitor the area under their control to prevent the loitering of persons on any properties adjacent to their property. and the sale of alcohol and beverages for consumption off the premises is prohibited and the above list of conditions have been signed by the applicant. >> chair: do we have the applicant here? >> this is the representative of hotel 321. we have the applicant here on the line to give a brief introduction to hotel 321 and the proposed sool bar. her name is sandy chung, and i'll let her go ahead and speak to you. >> good morning, supervisors.

i'll be very quick. if approved, this will allow the hotel 32one, the attached business, to provide food and beverage business. it will provide staff pride and enhance tourism for the city. we hope you will approve this process. >> chair: thanks. let's go to public comment. >> clerk: operations is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. please press star followed by 3 if you wish to be added to the queue. you will hear a prompt that will inform you that your line is unmuted. if you are watching on cable tv, call in following the instructions on your screen, calling 415-655-0001, then by entering the meeting i.d for

today's meeting of 146 044 5940. you will be connected. press the pound symbol twice and then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. mr. coo, could you let us know if we have any callers for agenda item 4. >> mr. chair, there are no callers in the queue. >> chair: public comment is now closed. i understand that supervisor peskin is supportive of this license transfer. >> i have no objections, mr. chairman. >> chair: no objections. given that, i think that we can direct our clerk to prepare a resolution finding that this transfer will serve public convenience and necessity. i will move that we offer that. [ roll call ]

>> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> chair: mr. clerk, will you call the next item. >> thank you, supervisors. >> chair: congratulations. you're muted, mr. clerk. >> clerk: ordinance amending the police code to regulate third-party food delivery services ("delivery services") by 1) capping fees charged to restaurants at 15% of an order total plus a 3% point-of-sale processing charge; 2) prohibiting delivery services from restricting restaurant pricing;

3) prohibiting delivery services from charging restaurants for telephone calls to the delivery service not resulting in any food or beverage order; 4) prohibiting delivery services from providing services to any restaurant without the restaurant's express written agreement to receive such services; 5) requiring third-party food delivery services to terminate a service contract within 72 hours of receiving a notice requesting termination from a restaurant; 6) requiring retention of and city access to records substantiating compliance with these restrictions; 7) authorizing the imposition of penalties for violations; and 8) authorizing the office of economic and workforce development to implement and enforce this ordinance. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this ordinance should call the public comment number now. that number is 415-655-0001, enter the meeting i.d. of 146 044 5940, press the pound symbol

twice to connect to the meeting, and then press the star key followed by the number 3 to enter the queue to speak. a system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. please wait until it's indicated you have been unmuted. that will be your cue to begin your comments. >> thank you, chair, for hearing this legislation yet again. thank you for signing on as co-sponsors. i want to thank mayor breed for the executive orders she has issued during the pandemic. i think it's time for the board to take over from here and move beyond the emergency order part of this piece of public legislation and come in with the board's responsibility to create what i would call a

semi-permanent piece of legislation. over the past two weeks since this was heard in committee, and i want to thank my staff lee hepner, my office and i personally have been engaged with all of the parties to discuss the best path forward, from lori thomas at the golden gate restaurant association to many of the different third party providers and their representatives. our key imperative remains unchanged as set forth in the mayor's executive order and this legislation which is at a time when these food delivery platfo platforms have really done quite well during the pandemic. san francisco's restaurants are struggling to survive and have the flexibility to do so. that means capping food delivery

fees for restaurants at 15%. it means allowing restaurants to set their own menu prices on food delivery platforms, which is really a common sense practice, which many contracts in this industry have restricted. it also means giving restaurants the right or flexibility to promptly remove themselves from these platforms with a modicum of notice, in this case 72 hours. i mean, these are basic und underlying principles that i believe all of the parties have now agreed to. and it means prohibiting food delivery apps from performing deliveries from restaurants which never signed up for the service at all, which i call slamming, which was recently the practice of new state law.

as i said earlier, i really want to thank all of the stakeholders, particularly the golden gate restaurant association and dozens of independent restauranteurs who have reached out to my office in support of this and explained all of the intricacies of this business model across different apps to me. i also really want to thank the almost 700 individuals who have signed on to achange.org petition in support of this legislation. i do have a few non-substantive amendments to make today which reflect our latest conversations with the industry and advocates. essentially, we've come to a place, i don't want to say of agreement, but at least a place where we will stick with the mayor's emergency order 15% cap,

take out the additional 20% point of sale fee, and instead of sunsetting in two years the changes that i'm proposing today would sunset 60 days following a chief health officer's order which allows for 100% indoor dining in san francisco. as we all know, we are thankfully well on our way there. these amendments are reflected in the deleted subsection (c) on page 3 of the legislation and section 5312 on page 10 of the legislation. based on the revised timeline, i'm also removing the language that describes the process for administrative revisions to this policy, because i don't think that will occur before the revised sunset date. obviously we can always come

back in the future and revisit that. that deletion is reflected in section 5308 in section 8. i'm happy to walk you through those changes. you are in receipt of them in yellow highlight. thank you to my staff lee hepner who has seen this through to this point. with that, mr. chair, i turn it back to you. >> chair: thank you. if my colleagues do not have any questions or comments, we will open this up to public comment. >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. operations is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. mr. coo, please let us know if we have any callers. if you are already on the line, please press star 3 to be added to the queue. you will hear a prompt informing you that your line is unmuted. for those watching this on cable

tv or online, if you wish to speak on this item, call in now by following the instructions displayed on your screen, which is by dialling 415-655-0001. then when prompted, enter the meeting i.d. of 146 044 5940. afterward you'll press the pound symbol twice, then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. mr. coo, do we have any callers? >> clerk: yes, i have two callers in the queue. >> chair: great. and i will remind folks that they have two minutes. we ask that you say your first and your last name clearly and speak directly into the phone. if you prepared a written statement, you are invited to send that to our clerk for inclusion in the file. we ask callers to avoid repetition of statements. let's hear from the first caller.

>> good morning, i'm the director of public policy and partnership at the golden gate restaurant association. i'm calling on behalf of the community we represent. thank you for hearing this item and listen to the restaurant community association that supports san francisco's small businesses. we want to thank supervisor peskin for helping all stakeholders on this ordinance and helps the industry survive until we get back to 100% indoor dining. we want to get back to helping all restaurants thrive and survive in san francisco. thank you. >> chair: thank you. next caller. >> my name is michael nolte. i'm the coordinate of the north market business association.

this association is in full support of this legislation. there are many small mom-and-pop restaurants in the north market area. a lot of them are being a hard time thriving because of covid. we need as many legislations that can help keep the neighborhood businesses open. so we hear about this all the time from our members, that we need to have more supportive resolutions that could keep our businesses open. also, i personally have had experience with the different amounts on pricing between a website and with -- actually at the restaurant. so it becomes confusing for the

customers. i think the thing is the customers need to be able to understand which amount do you p pay. there is confusion when a customer comes in and tries to look at the menu and there's one price and online there's another price. so i think this might clarify this on the customers' side. all right. thank you. >> chair: thank you. next caller. >> clerk: mr. chair, that completes the queue. >> chair: public comment on this item is now closed. if supervisor peskin doesn't have any closing comments, i will move to adopt the amendments that have been outlined for us today. >> clerk: on the motion offered

by the chair to accept the amendments offered by supervisor peskin. [ roll call ] >> clerk: on the motion that this be offered with positive recommendations. [ roll call ] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> chair: that passes and thank you for your work on this legislation. mr. clerk, please call the next item. >> clerk: item 6. hearing on the public health response to covid-19 in the

latinx community; resource allocation; testing, tracking, and treatment; performance standards; current and future strategies; and requesting the department of public health to report. members of the public comment who wish to provide public comment on this number should call the number, which is 415-655-0001. enter the meeting i.d. which is 146 044 5940. press the pound symbol twice and then press star 3 to enter the queue to speak. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. that will be your opportunity to begin your comments. >> chair: supervisor ronen, this is your hearing. >> thank you so much, chair, for holding this hearing or scheduling it. i want to thank d.p.h. for being

here. i wanted to set the tone or the reason for the hearing. in late april about a month after the shelter-in-place order was issued by mayor breed, there was a study begun to study covid infection rates in the mission. we had little information about where the virus was concentrated and which communities were hit. unfortunately this population had contracted the virus disproportionately to their numbers in the city. the city's response should have been swift to contain the virus and to mitigating the physical and emotional toll that covid has inflicted on this community. today, nearly seven months after the study, the situation has not improved in significant ways in the latinx community. while the latinx community makes

up 15% of the population of san francisco, it has consistently made up over 50% of the people testing positive for covid in this city. the latinx community deserves to know that d.p.h. has been doing to respond with solutions to this disproportionate amount of positivity within the latinx community and have many questions about how they've been -- the department has been focused on this community and what they plan to do to address the stubborn inequities. with that, i believe we have a fellow from d.p.h. who is going to start us off and perhaps do a presentation, if i'm correct. >> yes, that's correct. >> thank you so much.

please begin. >> thank you. i'll wait for the slides to be shared. good morning, chair, vice chair, and member walton. thank you, supervisor hillary, for calling the meeting. my name is lisa la ford. i grew up in san francisco and i served san francisco communities for over 20 years as an employee of the health department. prior to covid-19, i worked in population [indiscernible] coordinating special projects for the department. since the start of the pandemic, i have served as a disaster worker in various roles. as of april, 100% of my time has been dedicated to the covid command center and to lead the d.p.h. covid response focused on

the latinx community in san francisco. it is my honor and a privilege to serve my community during this difficult time. i am sharing this presentation this morning with the deputy director of the department of heal health. as you can see in the slide, we're sharing national data compared to our local data here in san francisco. overall, we've done a good job with keeping infection rates down in san francisco. as you can see, there is a current trend of a significant decrease in new cases. san francisco has been successful in responding to the covid-19 pandemic. we've had one of the lowest

death rates in the united states and we have the highest testing rate in the bay area compared to other major cities. early on, the focus in the deputy of public health was really to respond to cases that we were finding in congregate living settings. there was a higher rate of transmission in that setting that significantly impacted the latinx communities. with increased availability of testing and greater reopening, we learned that covid-19 has disproportionately continued to impact the latinx community in san francisco and across the united states. as you shared with us the current data, 49.6% of covid-19 cases in san francisco are among the latinx community and very disheartening to see that 25% of the deaths in san francisco are in the latinx community. currently, we are partnering with the latinx community to develop a covid-led covid-19

response strategy. the department of public health has been meeting on a regular basis with our community partners and we hope to complete this by september 2020. in this slide, we just wanted to kind of highlight that in san francisco we've seen the disparities impacting the latinx community. as you can see and you've shared before, although we're 15% of the population, 49 or almost 50% of the cases are in our community. this is in comparison to the bay area, for example. there are also 15% of the population and 60% of the cases. this is not unique to san francisco or state-wide.

as we also know state-wide, 61.6% of those cases are in the latinx community. so they're something that's going on in the whole state. we know that there are disparities and we suspect that we are seeing these disparities because people are living together in congregate settings and latinx folks are essential workers and so many folks have not been able to work from home. we know where you live and work can contribute to high transmission rates. this slide highlights what we've identified as drivers of the epidemic, what we're calling the three c's, crowded places, close contact settings, and confined and closed spaces.

this slide gives some examples of our efforts focused on serving the latinx community. i wanted to highlight that 36% of covid-19 spending is directed to serve latinx individuals. this is a d.p.h. effort. we're ensuring that our covid-19 response addresses linguistic and cultural needs of the community. we are serving spanish of speaking communities and undocumented individuals. we are focusing on testing for low-income individuals and famili families in connection with our community partners, to make sure this is accessible and

linguistically and culturally appropriate. we are also in partnership with the latino task force and the equity and parity coalition to make sure we're responding to the needs and what they're seeing on the ground. we've also provided staffing and testing for both days of carnival. this is an important event that was held in community, to provide access to information on health services. we know that currently [indiscernible] mental health needs, people shared with us that they're experiencing anxiety for many reasons and maybe also for the first time feeling depression. we felt it was really important to support this event and raise awareness around services that are offered by the department of public health [indiscernible] making sure they were aware on how to access these services.

in terms of our covid response, we have prioritized increasing our efforts to provide spanish-speaking contact tracing so that we can respond to those high rates that you mentioned of positivity in the community. >> quick question. after your presentation, i'll have a lot of questions about testing. but specifically when you say 36% of covid-19 spending went directly to serve latinx individuals. can you be more specific? >> yes, 36% -- my understanding is that 36% of the current fiscal year 2020-21 budget. i will defer to dr. laguina baba if she can expand on that. >> sure. and i think greg ragnar is on

the phone and can talk to that as well. when you look at the budget and how much of it is allocated to respond to the latino community, when you went line by line item, it amounted to about 36%. greg, did you want to weigh in? >> greg wagner, chief operating officer of d.p.h. we did an estimate as the doctor said, as we were kind of looking at this issue as we went through the major categories of the d.p.h. budget -- sorry. >> greg, i'm so sorry. i'm home schooling. >> i hear you. i've got some of that going on too. >> i'm like, please, can someone else deal with this. i missed what you said. could you repeat what you just said. i apologize. >> no worries. i got that in my house too.

we went through the d.p.h. budget where we went through categories of spending, major categories of your $204.6 million allocation to d.p.h., so p.p.e., testing, i.n.q. hotels, case investigation, and contact tracing. we tried to estimate what the various populations are that are using those services or benefitting from those services. and we tried to come up with an estimate of how much of that effort is directed at serving individuals in the latinx population. an example of that would be we take the contact tracing budget and look at what proportion of the population that's receiving contact tracing services [indiscernible] and then we use that to estimate a portion of the budget that is allocated. then obviously this will change.

this is kind of what we did as we went into the year. this will change as we modify our strategies. i think that's part of the conversation that you'll be getting into. for example, as we shift our testing strategy, the estimated -- and we try to increase the level of testing in the latinx population, that will change that allocation, but this was our starting point estimate based on the data. >> okay. because when the mayor sent out a press release saying that $28 million was being directed to the latinx community to community to address covid, i had requested -- it was strange to me because it was after the budget process. we hadn't done that during the budget process. so i was curious where that money was going and where it was

coming from. i had requested several times a line-by-line accounting for where is that money coming from and where is it going and still have yet to receive it. i've asked a number of times. hearing from the community, the latino task force and many of the non-profits that are directly serving the latino community, they are overwhelmed, have not received additional funds for housing stipends, testing, food, et cetera, et cetera. so it just -- there's these claims out there, but they don't seem to be matching the reality of what's happening on the ground. >> yeah, sure, supervisor. and i think there's a lot of pieces in this.

so there is this number which is an estimate of all of our services, and that includes staff that is working on it, it includes purchasing of p.p.e. but there's another i think more targeted conversation, which is resources directly to our community partners on the ground. that is a lot of work that we're doing through the process that was described by my colleague. that is related to the $28.5 million or $28.6 million, i forget the exact amount. where we are trying to take pieces from within this larger city-wide covid budget and also piecing together funds from elsewhere on top of that and get those directly into the hands of these organizations that are doing the work on the ground. so that is kind of a subset of

this larger covid budget, but one of the areas that we've been really kind of actively working on and focusing on for the last several months. >> i'm happy to go on and ask more questions, but at least how it feels -- i represent a district with the highest number of latino residents. and i work with the non-profits on the ground serving the latino community. it's felt like it's really the community taking care of its own and constantly begging for help and resources. in the beginning there was very little testing happening in the latino community outside of what

ucsf put together. finally there's 250 tests happening a week in the heart of the mission district at the latino hub. but i just -- there's these big proclamations made serving individuals. like, $28 million is going to the latino community. but when i ask for the details it's very vague and it sure doesn't feel like that amount of attention is being given to this community on the ground at all. that's what i'm hearing from community members who are volunteers spending all of their time at the hub. they created the hub. they're staffing the hub. they advocated for the hub. their work is, simply stated, extraordinary. but it hasn't felt like d.p.h.

has supported their heroic efforts nearly enough. i will stop there because i know you want to get through the rest of your presentation. but when there's these big claims, i've asked for details and have yet to receive them i will put that request officially on record again that $28 million that was allocated to the latino community by the mayor, if i can get an accounting of where that money came from and where that is going, i'm asking for the third or fourth time. it's been months since that press release went out. if i could get that information. and perhaps that's not your responsibility. i spoke to people directly in the mayor's office asking for that.

my legislative aide followed up. we have yet to see that. that would be helpful. if someone can communicate that up the line, that would be great. i'll be reaching out to the mayor's office again. it's been months and we have yet to see the details. when i hear 36% of d.p.h. spending is on the latinx community, it certainly does not feel that way in the community. again, i would like to see -- if it's an estimate, i would like to see all the factors that are considered in that 36% that you're estimating to feel -- to see why it doesn't compute in the neighborhoods, that that percentage of funding is being spent on this community. thank you. you can move on. >> okay. great. hopefully this slide will answer

some of the questions. it's a broad, general slide -- >> here we go, yeah. >> in this slide we are highlighting our current investments and our strategy in ponce to the latinx community needs. in late september the city announced over $28 million in expanded testing to support san francisco's latinx community and the funding is going to provide support for testing, tracing, behavioral health, housing subsidies, food access and support. as well as support -- >> the latino hub has not received the money and they are doing the vast majority of the work in the latino community. so when are they going to get the money they were promised? >> i will defer to malina or

greg on that one. >> supervisor, on the -- so there's the category on the top $3 million, that is split between mission, excelsior, and bay view. the vehicle of funding that is an existing office of economic and workforce development, r.s.p., contract. the source of funding coming for that is partially from the board of supervisors. and that's about $1.15 million. so we're grateful for that. the balance being d.p.h. funds. the oewd contract folks are in the process of awarding that contract. they're going through the city

requirements, city administrative requirements to get that funding out the door, but it is a stream lined process. since that's not within d.p.h., i don't know exactly what the timeline on it is, but i understand that it is very close to the contract in order to get those dollars out the door. >> all i know is that they are running a full-time, massive operation at the hub and i -- they needed this money yesterday. we've done our normal processes understanding that this is a pandemic and a crisis. i can't speak for the excelsior and the bay view. supervisor walton, maybe he can speak for the bay view, but

there's no other operation in town doing what the hub is doing in the mission. so i don't know what there is to decide there. >> supervisor, we certainly feel the urgency and it can't be fast enough, on all of these between the department of public health and o.e.w., we've been focusing on trying to get this money out the door in the fastest way possible and it's a little bit of a different strategy on each one. we are accessing emergency provisions. we are accessing the areas where we have existing contracts so that we don't have to start that lengthy process and it's not fast enough for any of us, including me, including the community. but we are pushing very, very hard to try to get this money out the door as fast as we can.

i understand that that's not fast enough. >> okay. and i didn't realize that that money was being put out through oewd, so i will be following up with director torez. they just can't wait any longer. they're operating on pure passion at this point and love for their community and they have been for months on end, but they need resources. they just need the resources. so anything you can do can to -- can do to speed up that process, we can't wait any longer. >> understood. >> chair: supervisor walton is in the queue. >> thank you so much, chair.

i want to thank the supervisor for all of her statements. if it wasn't for the latino task force and the work they started doing 100% on their own, there would not have been any testing prioritized for our latino community, which spread to the black community. in fact, ucsf had to step up and take care of the public. it's disheartening to see d.p.h. drag their feet when they're responsible for the public health of everyone here in this city. to supervisor ronan's point, now we are working hard and there's going to be hubs in bay view. i'm not sure what the work of excelsior is, but the motto of the latino task force and what's happening at the hub and in the mission is what we're duplicating in bay view right now. we brought so many issues of

concern to the department of public health. we know the highest rates of the folks contracting the virus are in the latino community and in district 10. we have an entire monolingual group that have not been connected to the services that they need. not only that, d.p.h. has been dragging their feet and not unleashing the resources. we have only asked for a measly $240,000 to fund a year's worth of testing. this billion-dollar department says they don't have $240,000 for testing in our communities. so this is just -- this is ridiculous. i don't understand -- mr. wagner, i don't get the answers to the questions that are being asked. if there is money dedicated, it

should have been out in the community right away. this is an emergency. we've had emergency orders. some of the bureaucratic games being played with the resources to the communities that are doing the work without the support from the various city resources that are supposed to take care of the work is a problem. we have emergency orders and we need to get resources to communities like yesterday and that hasn't happened. but yet the sheer will of the people and the work of the community is why -- there are things getting done to address the pandemic. but it's not coming from the department that is supposed to be taking care of our community and the health of our community. it makes no sense to me.

>> okay. i wasn't sure if someone was going to comment on that. the next slide -- the remainder of the presentation will be -- >> i'm sorry, can i just ask one more question about this slide. is the $7.3 million, if i'm facing the screen on the left of the slide, the sum of the three $1.5, $1.25, and $1.15 million on the right side of the screen? >> yes, supervisor, that's correct. >> but not all of the money on the right side of the screen is going to serve directly the latino community. correct? i mean, the central service hub, for example, in all three neighborhoods, while they -- in the mission they're primarily serving the latino community, but not exclusively, i would imagine that the population in

the bay view and the excelsior, while there is a large portion of the latinos in those neighborhoods, that they're still not exclusively serving those communities. i'm just wondering if that's a fair estimate. >> others who are -- these are the funds who are allocated -- these are those who are clutched to these facilities. we will defer to you on that. >> these funds are to go to the latino community directly. for the hubs we would need [indiscernible] and how their process is created. but it is meant to go to, i

believe the latino community. we created that in excelsior and in bay view because there is an overrepresentation in all of these communities of latinos testing positive and wanting to make sure there is a way to meet the needs of those individuals as positive. the community care and contact tracing and community retaliate are all meant to go to community organizations. >> first of all , i want to mak clear i'm not trying to pit communities against each other because every community deserves the utmost of resources to fight this horrible pandemic. in a way this hearing is conducted to focus in on one of the communities that is hardest hit by this epidemic, but that's

why i want to make sure these are fair representations. i'm thrilled that the bay view and excelsior are getting an essential service hub. they should absolutely be getting that. but then to say that $2 million is focused on the latino community, i don't think that's fair. i think there are many communities in those neighborhoo neighborhoods, just like in the missions, it is mainly the latinos benefitting, but not exclusively. to say that d.p.h. is investing this money in the latinx community, i think that's not accura accurate. >> maybe we need to think about the language that we're using.

this set of d.p.h. programs on the right, the four categories, came directly from the conversations with the help group. these are the community asks that we're funding. so that was the process for it. so we are really trying to align the dollars with exactly what the requests for the community with. but i understand your point that there is a larger system. >> okay. thank you. >> so malina will now do the remainder of the presentation. >> you know what, sorry, for my benefit. i am not as steeped in this as supervisor ronan, who has been trying to unlock this money. how long has that $3 million

been trying to work its way out of the city to the hub? >> that's a fair question. i'm trying to kind of think back into memory, but i would guess that it is -- i don't want to hold myself to it. i would have to look back how we were talking about this. six weeks since we were working on this process. >> is it $3 million for essential services that the decision was made six weeks ago? >> i believe so. i know these conversations have been going on longer than that, trying to pin down when we started the process of actually allocating these funds through the contract. but i know there have been conversations about this since before that time. >> i mean, if someone could run

and grab whoever is overseeing this process and maybe before the end of this hearing and get us an indication of where it is. it seems like our volunteers are trying to pull it together and hold it down and wait for the cavalry to arrive. >> we can get this off line about the finalization of that contract and get it to you.

>> let's move on to the next slide. >> can we go back to that slide? if mayor breed invested $28.5 million in supporting the city's latinx community, why can't you itemize, like you did on the right side, where the $28.5 million is going. >> of that, 7.3 is from d.p.h. we would have a larger question of where the rest is coming from. >> so it's really not $7.3 million to supervisor ronan's point because all of this is not going to the latino community.

>> supervisor, we can show the rest of the breakdown and what categories these are. this is all driven by the ask from the latino community. we'll get you the breakdown of the other pieces, but it's rental support, which is through h.s.a., i believe, its food programs, food support through h.s.a. there are children and families program through dcyf. i don't know that we have that in this presentation itemized, but we can certainly do that. we can certainly show you the rest of the pieces of that 28.5. >> supervisor walton, i've been asking for that information since the press release came out and have yet to receive it [indiscernible] -- >> [all talking at once] --

>> i appreciate that that's forthcoming because it's definitely something we should have had already. i would just love to know also what is in the plan to take care of these unhoused families that we've identified to h.s.h., to d.p.h. that are living in vehicles, that have no supportive services. i would love to see what amount of resources is going there and what the plan is for services there as well. i hope that's part of what we're going to see. >> were there any other questions or should we -- okay. we can move on. so i wanted to talk a little bit about our continuum of care and what that entails and set the framework.

supervisor ronan, as you pointed out, the social determinants of health are laying bare why certain communities are suffering from covid compared to others. underlying this is just the general health and health inequities. how we looked at this is really through the lens of individuals living in the community with their family, how do we reach them through prevention and education so they can prevent or hopefully never get covid and keep their family safe. as has been pointed out, there are many determinants that are in those communities. essential workers and congregate living situations, those people are not always able to take those actions to socially distance and shelter in place. if somebody does develop symptoms or if they have an exposure or if they're being

asked to perform an essential service and they require some screening, that turns out positive. the next thing we want to ensure is that they can get tested. hopefully they get tested and they're able to recover. some of that is they get enough symptoms that they have to go to the hospital. there's a couple of diversions here in terms of the continuum. testing, as you all have heard in the past, really a punch point for our resources. we have built up testing over time and have gotten to a better model which i'll talk about later. testing is only one part of the continuum. you can get tested, but if there's no resources there to do the results to do the case and contact tracing to make sure you have quarantine and wrap-around services, that by itself is not going to make a difference.

additionally with the hospitalization, the same thing, if someone is in for a couple of days and then gets discharged, do they have a place to go to. do they have the wrap-around supports needed. and then eventually we want to get the entire population to recovery that gets tested and tests positive. to both of these ends, we want to ensure that people have medical and healthcare access. that includes baseline medical care. we are in flu season. we want to make sure people have flu vaccines so they are not exposed to flu and confusing that with covid. all of that is really important. all of this requires our community and the community and community members to make this a successful model. i wanted to say from the

beginning that we wouldn't be here today without all the work the community has done. we are meeting regularly with the latino task force and a number of other associations. what can we take from the people on the ground to support that work and also to make it city-wide. for the prevention and education, we've been working with a number of the community members. the slide that is on my right talks about -- or has been done with the latino task force as well as their joint information center and is talking about families united against covid. these announcements have gone

out in public transportation. there's been digital and traditional platforms to go out. we also did a labor day campaign because we know during three-day holidays there is a worry that people wanted to gather. how can you do that safely and still ensure that you're meeting your family and community members, but doing it in a safe way so the disease doesn't spread. we are working with our provider who we have existing contracts with. they were gracious enough to change what they were doing to really meet the need and we allowed that in the contract. they have been going out to businesses in the mission to really provide that educational foundation, to pass out masks and do all that prevention work.

i want to move to testing. we are moving to a respond and adapt strategy. we have been able to do that as we have more resources. to go through this slide quickly, part of the model is that we have capacity in neighborhoods that have been hard hit by covid. it has been alluded to. mission health was one of the first places sending out a request for testing at that site. it has been very successful because the task force has done such a wonderful job engaging with the community and getting people tested. you can see at this point in time 78% of people who test there are latinx.

it's been a huge success. additionally, a excelsior strong, there has been a significant amount of testing in the latinx community and it represents 63%. we've had pop-ups in bay view, the tenderloin, in sunnydale and ocean view and ingleside. you can see [indiscernible] are doing a lot less testing. in embarcadero, even though it has a high volume, on 17% are latinx. based on that information, we have decided to move this south of market so that we can definitely reach the southeast

quarter in a much more robust way. that is part of the testing strategy. we know the data that our latinx community is impacted. through our sites, we are trying to get low-barrier testing to these populations. hopefully we can be faster with this process as we move forward. any questions? >> thank you, doctor. will the testing all week be available to anyone? will that be similar to the embarcadero site? >> so it will be five days a

week because of the food market that happens. >> right, of course. >> it will be monday through friday. i think they're still offering that. >> fridays will be in the morning and end in the day so they can prepare for the farmers' market on saturday. we plan to have a drop-in as well as a drive-through at the location. we're trying to coordinate with the provider of the service to be able to have some preregistration appointments as well as drop-ins.

we're trying to catch essential workers and other community members. >> that's a great development and i'm excited about it. i'm hoping that that will commu impacted by the pandemic. i understand that this is all very complicated and the onus and the work on d.p.h. right now is massive. i really truly understand that.

but i am frustrated that the vast majority of the testing has been in -- testing people that are not testing positive for covid at high rates, whereas very little testing has gone on where people are testing positive at low rates. it's taken long to shift the testing rates or to do something differently. i want to talk about that a little bit because i want to make sure that it changes and changes fast.

i remember talking to the mission neighborhood health center who was having a 28% positivity rate in the mission for a very long period of time. it just blew me away. 28%. because they were testing only latino folks. i'm just wondering in the embarcadero what over time has been the positivity rate. my guess is it will be around 1% to 3%. right. i mean, why didn't that lead to a massive change in the use of resources to test the population that was testing 27% high er hin the areas that you are testing? why did this take so long? just talk to us a little bit about that, because it seems to me to be a failure.

>> [indiscernible] -- >> i appreciate both of those points. we agree, the ability to remove testing has been difficult. we've tried to meet the communi communities where needed. this is acknowledgement that we do need a fixed site. we're starting with moving the market. potentially there is -- part of

this is the resource needs and we've been contracting this out through a contract that was mentioned. this new resource and the new contract, there is resources for more pop-up testing as well as another site that we could plan to hopefully have in the southeast sector. we can have more ability to, for example, potentially go to transportation hubs and do some pop-up testing at those sites. so as we get more resources, we plan to utilize them to really focus on where we're seeing the positives. as i said right now, and it has been for the last many months in the southeast sector to concentrate our efforts with this partner to do that work.

if i go to the next slide, i can show what the city clinics have been doing which is tremendous in terms of the amount of people they're seeing and the amount of positivity rates there. >> just quickly before you do that, doctor. just to make sure that that alamini site is successful and sort of reverses the trend of doing the vast majority of our testing in communityies that ar not hardest hit and doing so little testing, if we're trying to do that, and right or wrong, what community members are we working with in alamini to make sure we're getting the right

communities there and run it in a way that folks feel comfortable to get tested. >> part of this selection process has involved community membe membe members. within the covid command we have an equity and neighborhood branch that has worked closely with the community. as we get more details of the site, it will be engaging with our community partners to ensure that we get the right people to get tested. part of that is looking at ours, but also looking at the materials going out and that people know the site is

available and accessible. >> supervisor walton, you were in the queue. did you get your question asked or a comment made? >> i was just going to ask about the testing site for alamini and why it takes so long. >> part of it is the operations. we have to close down selma. they book two weeks out for testing. and closing that down and all the logistics of setting up in alamini. so that takes a couple of weeks. as noted, getting the community inp input. so that's why it takes a little

bit longer than we like. >> kelly can also share a little bit information on the testing and focus on different populations. did you want to share some more information, kelly? >> yeah. 30% of the testing has been in eight neighborhoods that have the highest positivity and of those neighborhoods, they have 30% of the populations. so we are trying to fine-tune how we do our pop-ups. the other thing on the mobile sites is because of the landscape of how san francisco is, in certain neighborhoods it is challenging to find a right-sized site that can be responsive to a community that is also something that the

community is open to having stand up in their neighborhood. so those are some of the challenges about trying to make sure we get a right site. >> i do just want to say that ucsf was able to set up testing in a week's time in our direct. i do want to be clear that i don't know how that can continue to be an excuse. we had testing set up in less than a week working with other entities. >> and we're going to be consulting with ucsf to understand how they're setting up very quickly. for us, we're there for -- we try to be in a location for at least three weeks, usually longer. that means we need to be able to stand up and take down a site every day and network out into the neighborhood.

we're trying to be better and more collaborative. and working closely with the equity team to make sure that the communities are included in the discussions, but also that there is a lot of outreach to make sure that the sites are successful. >> okay. maybe we can go on to the testing in -- >> so we talked a little bit already that in july the latino task force requested testing at the hub and has been very successful through their work. in august we launched the community pop-ups and [indiscernible]. these are our d.p.h. fall centers.

right now we have alternate sites at five places. overall, we have tested over 21,900 within the d.p.h. health centers, including 45% who have been latinx. over 13% have tested positive in the latinx community. supervisor, as you noted, it's been 25%, a much higher rate. so we are seeing a much higher rate at our alternate testing site in terms of what what's coming out positive. that is potentially due to people who are accessing it.

there might be more people coming to the site to get tested. we are ensuring that our sites are well utilized pm i'm. i'm going to turn to the contact tracing. some of the findings that we've had from the population when we've done these case investigations is that the majority prefer to speak span h spanish. the latino population tends to be younger than the general population and they tend to live in crowded environments. our goal is because of the high case rates in the community, we are working towards having a much more robust capacity for

case investigation and contact tracing. right now 50% of our case investigators speak spanish and the contact tracing workers it's 36%. we want people in the community to take on this work because they know the community. the i.c.t. group is working with contact tracing groups. there's been several partnerships. part of it is building out more of those partnerships so more can go to the community.

being able to contact appropriately, this is a snapshot of our hotels and 45% of people who choose to go into a hotel for isolation of quarantine are latino. a lot of people want to stay home and determine how they can stay home safely. there is a whole wrap-around service for that to happen. it's not just delivery, but checking up and making sure the rest of the household has the appropriate cleaning supplies, that if they need medical care, that will be on site. there's a lot of different parts that go into this. we have this in covid commands, but the latino task force has shown that part of the funding

needed will go to these teams that are able to really contact people once they're identified with the wrap-around services. this slides shows the essential program for people to isolate and quarantine at home. we should say that people should isolate and quarantine and provide the services. if they need the financial support to go get a job, they wi will. this program with the next round of funding will have a much more

streamlined process. within 24 hours, once we get the results, we ask if they need financial help to isolate, that this help would happen faster than in the past. >> doctor, having worked with the latino task force to create this program, which is widely hailed as one of the most successful interventions to get people who are positive with covid to have the possibility of quarantining and not spreading the virus in the workplace more, we had to help the programs for about a month because we ran out of months.

we were able to get a second philanthropic donation to keep it going. i'm hustling right now, as director torez, to get that next $2 million philanthropic donation to help. but if we don't, when is it time for the city to get the next wider spread to help with this effort against covid and are there discussions in d.p.h. on that? >> it's an issue of where to

allocate. we are moving through the community, so that would be a difficult determination. we're happy to talk through it further to think what are the different mechanisms that we can try to figure out for recovery. it does seem like philanthropy is the right way because it doesn't have all the strings attached to it that potentially a program like this would if it went through a city department. also, as you're saying, the funding is going to be important to figure out how to do the funding. i don't have a good answer for you right now, but we can talk more about it. >> this is partially why i wanted -- you know, the mayor's office did not involve my office, despite the fact that i work very, very closely with the latino community and represent

the neighborhood with the stroke center of the latino community to create the proposal with the $28 million, which i still don't know where the money is coming from or where it's going. but the fact that this program isn't included as part of that is again frustrating to me because it is so important and so crucial to protecting this community, who are disproportionately suffering the brunt of this illness because they are essential workers. they are essential workers in many minimum wage jobs, where legally or illegally, there is no opportunity to miss work without getting evicted and putting food on the table. so when faced with those choices and a family who is depending on

you, the only way people can stay home and isolate is if they have that income coming in. the fact that we've stopped this program for a month because there were no funds. both director torez and i have been chasing this. this program is a real and effective guard against the spreading of this disease in the community, which is the number one task we have right now.

we need to allocate funds to make sure this program does not die off again until we have a vaccine because it's really that important. >> thank you for that, yeah. >> next slide. the critical community efforts that we went over in this slide and we are creating with the community a strategy around response and recovery that we will help to set the framework that we're all working together on the same goals and outcomes, which includes creating performance metrics which

focuses on the care that is being provided and how we're doing as a community. there have been so many people who have been essential to the work we're doing. this slide is a snapshot. there's been so many others, but specifically we've worked very closely with the latino task force, with the mission neighborhood, with the san francisco aid foundation, and excelsior strong. i could go on and on. they have all been supporting their community and have made a real difference in the pandemic. we want to acknowledge all of their work as well.

>> thanks so much. i do hope that what we can get out of this hearing is the following, we need to get the money promised to the community into their hands yesterday. whatever this -- of this you can do to make that happen is essential. we have volunteer workers who are waiting for their stipend and salary who have been working full time for a month, really putting their health on the line, being front-line workers who have not gotten paid. we have the program that has been for free instituted by the community in their spare time to

make sure the people are staying home. i just really hope that after this hearing we can get those funds to the community, we can re-designate testing resources so they are hitting the communities most impacted by the virus. and last, but not least, we can really have a conversation with the city investing resources in the right to recover program. and, very sadly, i have to leave for another engagement. so i know there's folks waiting for public comment. i hope at least i can hear the first couple of public commenters. i ask supervisor walton is he could lead this when i leave because i know he works with his

community like i do. if you're willing, supervisor walton. >> of course. >> thank you so much. if we could now open this up for public comment, that would be good. >> while we still have you, are you going to want to file this or continue? >> can we continue it in case we need to come back. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> clerk: we are checking if there are any callers in the queue. please press star followed by 3 if you wish to speak on this item. for those already on hold in the queue, please wait until you're prompted to begin. you'll hear a prompt that will inform you that your line has been unmuted. for those watching on cable tv or online, if you wish to speak

on this item, please call in now by following the instructions which should be displayed on your screen, by dialling 415-655-0001, enter today's i.d. the i.d. is 146 044 5940. press the pound symbol twice and then star followed by 3 to speak. mr. coo, could you let us know if we have any callers. >> we have one caller in the queue. >> chair: i will explain that speakers have two minutes. we ask you to state your first and last name clearly and speak into the phone. if you prepared a written statement, you're encouraged to send that to our committee clerk for that to be included in the official file and we ask speakers to not repeat prior comment. let's hear our first speaker.

>> my name is peter cory. i'm a data scientist and i live in the mission district. i created at the start of this pandemic a website called phoenix data project. i've been trying to provide good local information to mission local. i thought everything in this pandemic was going great by the start of june and was really disappointed with the huge spikes that i saw into july and august. that's when i started looking around at communities that were really affected and saw the latino task force. i had volunteered to help them out. i see these as force multifullies. s.f. d.p.h. doesn't need to be doing this on their own, but partnering with other organizations like the l.p.h.

the metrics really are not that great. they should be using a model like ucsf has where there were effective dates of isolation. i spoke to one member at the hub one day and he said they didn't have enough resources to pursue that. now the cases are down. they should have enough resources and especially if you start partnering with community-based organizations, i think i really see that partnership as key in this pandemic, especially to keep cases down while there's so many cases raging across the u.s., to keep them from spreading here. partnership, partnership, partnership. thank you. bye. >> chair: thank you. next speaker.

>> my name is john jacobo, and i am the health committee chair for the latino task force. one of the instrumental partners in this fight against covid-19. there's been a lot that's been stated. i've written a ton of notes. my first point is i'm a little disappointed that dr. grant colfax is not here to take questions. i understand that people are busy and things come up, but at the end of the day the latino community has been hit hard and this should be top priority. i want to put that out. i want to give major kudos and love to isela ford, who did a great job of presenting and oscar masias who is here at the testing facility. i want to be clear. the city and county of san

francisco has failed the latino communities in the city. follow the data and test where it leads. partner with community every step of the way and you will be able to get the high turnout that we need. 170,000 tests done at embarcadero and in selma 6,000, where the data is much more disparaging. this is obviously not doing the right think. we need low barrier, walk up same day, weekend testing. that's not happening. i know people are happy we have moved to tier yellow for the reopening chart, but the pandemic has not gone away.

>> hello? >> clerk: you have a few seconds left. >> last point. we need funding. we've known about these disparities since april. the latino task force has yet to receive a dollar of public health in terms of our resources. we need those resources now if you expect us to continue -->> clerk: thank you. >> chair: next speaker. >> my name is michael nolte, and i'm a former employee of the san francisco health department so i understand some of these conflicts that happened. it seems to me -- i'm not speaking on behalf of the health department, i'm speaking on behalf of the community. it seems to me that these are the kinds of problems that exist when there's a bunch of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy is not meeting the needs of the community. it's great that somebody comes up and says, well, we got funding, but where's the

funding. who loses here is the latinx community maybe because they don't have as much political pull. i'm grateful that we have a supervisor that's -- actually, several supervisors who are at least at this meeting advocating for the needs of their constituents. if we didn't have district-wide supervisors, this would then again amass because when we had city-wide supervisors they would not let things really happen for every part of the city. i think it's also important that we respond and recover our community and this is just one of the many issues that need to be addressed. i don't want to speak on behalf of the latinx community, but my

family did grow up in the missi mission. i do understand that each community has its own issues. i'll speak for the tenderloin. the tenderloin has problems with the barriers. you can't have barriers -- >> chair: thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, chair. i appreciate the work of these organizations. i am the director of excelsior

works. we are part of the excelsior strong. i need to highlight, we are not city departments that are staffed with medical and public health care professionals. but what we are, what our organizations are, we are an army of volunteers who approach our service with a sense that we are our brothers' and our sisters' keepers. we have been doing this work without any extra funding to hire and build this team and to sustain this work. i believe there is a sense that organizations have shifted their work to covid-19 response, and in some cases it's true, but some have added this to core services. this is the time we need to come together to address this pandemic, which will continue to linger long after there is a vaccine. we need our city departments to

have a long-term plan and not a plan that goes from budget cycle to budget cycle. the social determinants that have been exacerbated for the latinx community community and a vaccine is not going to fix that. we need our city departments to join us to think through plans, and to think through social determinants starting with covid-19 at this time. >> i would like to make some remarks, chair. obviously we have a long way to go to make sure the needs of the latinx community are met in this period of crisis.

this community has been impacted the most in terms of the number of cases in terms of contracting covid-19. we need low-barrier testing, we need contact tracing, we need full provisions, we need resources for the individuals in case they have to currant. those resources and dollars should be in place and should have hit the community. the latino community and their resiliency and stepping up and providing and creating a hub for their community is one that we should, one, try to take note and duplicate across the city, but two, measure the volunteer effort and look at this community looking after its own without the support of the city, which is really is supposed to take place and look out for our folks in the community. d.p.h. has provided consistent

daily testing in areas where it's difficult for people to get to, particularly for people from communities of color and areas where concentration of cases is nowhere near the other levels in the city. d.p.h. has to step up, one, get the resources for the community. two, make sure the provisions are being provided where the data says we are needed the most. that has to happen and that has to happen yesterday. the funding that has been set aside for the latinx community needs to get to services right away. we talk about commitment to the community and making sure that

people understand that communities are a priority. it would seem to me that we would have that level of leadership be here to present or answer questions and let the community know this is a priority. so i do want to thank the d.p.h. staff that did attend today for presenting and answering questions. we will have more conversations about this. the dollars need to be released as of yesterday. this is not a time for the bureaucracy to move slow. we are in a pandemic. we have emergency orders and should be able to take care of our communities, particularly with the resources carved out and dedicated for this community. i do want to move that we continue this to the call of the chair. thank you, supervisor. [ roll call ]>> clerk: there are

three ayes. >> clerk: hearing to review the city's protocols for covid-19 testing, including third party testing contracts and current request for proposal processes, as well as the city's proposals for ensuring the practical application and implementation of the department of public health's internal testing priorities for vulnerable communities; and requesting the department of public health and the office of the controller to present. people wanting to comment should call the number, 415-655-0001, enter the i.d. number 146 044 5940, press the pound key twice and then press star 3.

please wait in the queue until you are unmuted. >> i just wanted to make a comment. let me start by saying while much of this board's focus has been around ensuring that the department of public health has, as just talked about, been prioritizing testing for the highest-need populations, i really want to thank supervisor ronan and walton with the last item and a focus on the latinx community. i think as many of you are

aware, last month an r.f.p. was posted on the city contract partner site. given the overlap with our delay fiscal year 2020-2021 budget approval, i wanted to drill down and understand what we've been doing with contracting around testing up to this particular point. what we've learned and to contextualize that as to how the department of public health will impact the delivery of this profoundly important function of testing during the pandemic as well as accounting for protocols on how the city and d.p.h. is using its funds as we roll that

out, how that's geographically distributed, what the numbers are. this is a high-level look into that, and particularly around how the city uses third party vendors, how they're vetted, how we're using the funds to support the wrap-around services, as we've heard, are essential to supporting equitable testing, contact tracing, and follow up. with that, i will turn it over to dr. baba. and i want to thank your colleagues for sending over a slide deck. i've made a bunch of comments on that and that has gotten expanded. with that, i'll turn it over to d.p.h.

>> are you having technical difficulties? >> it's displaying. are we able to click through from one to another? >> maybe i can't see it. okay. we'll start with -- >> you've got a beautiful view of the grove street building. >> okay. well, i have them printed off in front of me, so i will go

through them that way. thank you, supervisor peskin, for calling this. i wanted to talk a little bit about covid-19 but mostly focus on testing and the strategy around testing as well as how we prioritize what our sites and assets are that we've described a little bit in the last presentati presentation. i wanted to go to the next sl e slide. so this is our key health indicators and this is something that is on the s.f. data tracker -- >> we're on a slide that says presentation outline. is that where you want us? >> no, the next one. >> now we're on key health indicators. >> so this is information that's on our s.f. data tracker. we wanted to just review with

you where we are in terms of the pandemic. most of our indicators are in green, so the biggest ones that we focus on is the healthcare system, does it have the capacity to take on covid patients? if there was a surge, what's the rate of hospitalization? do we have enough i.c.u. beds and acute care hospital beds. we've been in green for a while. part of the pandemic has been an evolution. i know we were working very closely with the hospital and healthcare partners to ensure we did have that capacity. we've been it at one of the lowest hospitalization rates.

in terms of the disease situation westbound lane that has also greatly improved. i want to take a second on testing. with testing early on there was issues around it. we didn't have enough swabs or reagent. when we did get swabs and reagents it wasn't all immediately accessible. there was a buildup. we had to prioritize where testing would go. we've prioritized congregate settings like nursing homes. that's where we've seen and continue to see the most deaths.

and the contact tracing and p.p.e., p.p.e. has been in green for a long time, but early on that was a point that caused a lot of concern. moving to the next slide -- >> dr. baba, can i ask a question about the 3.5 that we're at and sort of coming out of that prior hearing. we're not necessarily doing as much testing as we would like to be doing in the neighborhood and in the areas that have the highest positivity. is that 3.5 real or is that a number that could be a lot higher if we were going more testing in bayview, mission, excelsior? >> it's a great question. you know, we have more assets

towards testing, but if we had more cases, would we catch more cases. to piggyback on that, we follow the positivity rates in the latinx community and those rates have come down as well. so because most of our cases were driven by the latino community, they would be 50% of the cases. we expected, even though we weren't catching -- some of the people that aren't accessing testing, those accessing testing and continuing to, we would expect them to drive the numbers. we are seeing an increase in all of our communityies. we are looking at the southeast

quadrant of the city. >> why do we think those numbers are coming down? >> there are a lot of hypotheses. i don't think that we have a complete picture. it could be that we've done a lot more testing. our community partners are doing a great job with testing and getting wrap-around services. the case rates are going down around california. it could also be that there is a certain percentage of vulnerable populations that got it initially and it made its way through the likely people it could transmit to. it's gone through that. obviously there's a huge part of the population that still hasn't gotten covid, but they might be in that early transmission phase. >> thank you. >> moving to the covid comparisons, this just -- this

slide shows that san francisco, compared to other major cities, has one of the lowest case rates, at 13.4%. we have a significantly lower death rate. again, one of the reasons we believe we have a significantly lower death rate is we've prioritized our congregate settings, such as nursing homes, as a place we want to get testing to first and we ensure that surveillance testing happens there as well. because of that -- and not just nursing homes. we've prioritized h.r.l. early on. we were looking at shelters as well. places where we knew there could be a lot of transmission and that could quickly cause morbidity and morality. with that, we've been able to keep our death rates fairly low

compared to other cities. next slide, please. slide five. so in terms of successes, we've had -- san francisco has consistently had more testing than the rest of the bay area. we have 31 testing sites and together they performed 610 tests total. the city has provided about 50% -- 60 to 50% of those tests. so, you know, really that has been a success. as has been discussed, we need to do an adaptive strategy of leading those tests to the right populations. we plan to continue to do that. we have exceeded our goal and initially our goal was going to be 1,800 tests per day and now we collect 5,000 tests per day. and i mentioned the leading to

low death rates from this. i wanted to talk a little bit -- delve a little bit more into our high impact response strategy. this is our strategy really about how do we prioritize hot spots and where do we find populations that are testing positive. the first thing i want to point to is a foundation of prevention. so we would like eventually that nobody does test positive. so that prevention aspect is really foundational, with the face coverings, the physical distancing, ensuring people have access to disinfection, providing physical distance is all critical to success. if someone wants to get tested, we want to make sure they are

able in a low-barrier way and we want to make sure it happens in places where it's been stated there's a higher risk of transmission. those higher risks of transmission include places where there's crowded or congregate living, places that are congregate centers. and utilizing the data we get from the test positivity to be able to pivot so that our test tracers can follow the disease and stop the disease. testing is one component of that. if you get tested and don't have the ability to isolate and quarantine or if we're not able to get to your contacts, it really won't make a difference. so that rapid response of being able to wrap around with food support, with income support, with any other type of support is important. and then educating households and community members around

wearing masks and investing in these community models and investing in capacity. so even though it hasn't been as rapid as they want to, we are pushing this model and really want to take this model to ensure that the communities that are most impacted, that we have a much more rapid response to prevent disease in those communities. next slide, please. >> so this is our testing prior tos. this is based on the state recommendations. basically, if we were ever to get to a place where testing ended up being very limited again, we would have to tier the categories of testing. tier one, obviously, people who are hospitalized should get tested. anybody with a public health outbreak needs to get tested. tier two, people who are

symptomatic. if you're a close contact, whether you're symptomatic or not, you need to access the tests in a fairly rapid manner. and people who are asymptomatic who are high risk based on their status, the nursing homes, correctional facilities, or their work status, if you have to work with the public like healthcare or work with the public that has covid. so people in healthcare, e.m.s., or if for one reason you need it for your own status. if you need to get a test before a major operation, we would want you to have access to that. we have added tier 2 a. we are saying those with barriers to health are a high priority. those populations in high-density living situations, homeless individuals, they all

have priority in testing. and the next tier are asymptomatic workers. tier four is everybody else. that's our testing prioritization. the next slide shows where the testing is. we have multiple testing sites throughout the city. the green sites are just the general sites and then the blue sites are sites that you don't have to be insured to go there. so in terms of the city sites that have been talked about, those are the highest-volume sites. right now embarcadero is not only testing the general public, there are specific appointments

rdsws and close contacts. we are reserving those. if you are a close contact and require a test that day, that we have the capacity to get you a test that day. [please stand by] >> just to categorize, we have

our fixed site and our mobile testing. we have two contracted city test mobile assets and those are utilized for our pop-up testing and then we have a mobile team, our public nursing team that goes out to outbreaks and then our final mobile asset is dedicated to our nursing homes. then we do have a state asset, it's controlled -- it allows san francisco to have an asset. it does about 150 tests a day and it's located in the southeast quadrant. next slide please. so, just wanted to talk a little bit about the health order that has been -- or i should say i wanted to talk a little bit about what other systems are doing.

so, we talked a lot about what the city is doing and i think i mentioned that we do anywhere from 50% to 60% of the testing. that means all the healthcare systems are doing about 40%. the biggest healthcare system, they are doing about 20% of testing. so, in july, we put out a help order, mandating that the healthcare system test certain groups of people. so it requires them to prioritize symptomatic people, as well as close contacts that they must test those populations. we haven't really seen that much movement in terms of an increase in the numbers of testing, so we're still looking at this and seeing ways that the healthcare system can do better and engage

more, especially as more businesses and schools come online. so that continues to be an ongoing conversation. next slide please. so, this is a map of -- the green map shows the test positivity in september and the purple map shows where our tests have occurred. it has been mentioned that it is really a market in the dark purple, that means it's been tested the most. if you look at the green map, the test positivity is the southeast quadrant of the city. there is a mismatch and we are trying to correct that mismatch by having more testing assets go to the southeast sector.

then, one of the things we know -- next slide please. one of the things we know is that there are multiple vulnerable communities that could -- that if covid could spread. we seen it spread in the latino community and in the bay area, as well as across california. other, you know, the economic issues could also lead the african american community, the p.i. community also had a high rate and the chinese community, because of the dense living quarters, are vulnerable. we have been working with chinese hospitals to partner around testing and they have been a great partner in working with s.r.o. buildings as needed

there. we are also starting to do mobile testing and the first of that will happen at the end of october. >> sorry to interrupt you, but that's similar to the previous question in the previous hearing. it's been a while since the screaming and crying, but has chinese hospitals gotten paid yet? there was a huge delay. they were advancing money and staff resources and they are a tiny hospital and there was a huge lag in them receiving funds from the city. do you know the current status of that or maybe mr. wagner can respond to that. that was a source of a lot of angst pretty recently. >> craig, do you have the

answer? either of you? >> i'm sorry. >> greg, sorry. >> go ahead if you have an answer. i thought there were some grant funding that had been made available for that purpose. >> i can say there was a commitment to support some testing through the end of june and the processing of that payment happened some time a week or two ago. i can check and confirm and make sure that actually happened. then this reference here to the bullet point is we're still working through the contracting process, so that's an upcoming commitment. >> all right. >> well, time is of the essence my friends. paying our bills promptly is of the essence as well. >> that segues nicely into the

next slide. so do you want to talk about the testing budget? >> sure. good afternoon supervisors. >> go ahead. >> sorry. i'm the deputy finance for d.p.h. here to talk about two slides. basically summarizing our contracting and our fee experience with testing and then i can give a brief update on the cause. for testing since the start of the pandemic really around april 6th, we contracted to support the city s.f. program and have run through a series of amendments up to the point where we are now. we have been supporting both programs. on september 1st, we released in

partnership with the controllers office and r.s.p. to continue testing services in a competitively sourced contract through the end of the fiscal year and perhaps beyond. you see on the slide here, the services will include the full component of city test s.f., plus additional support around billing or additional work around billing, which i can get into in the next slide to show why. you'll see there that the testing budget for 2021 is 58.9 million, of which we incurred about 17 million in expenses since july. i expect to have that awarded around the end of october. there is some pressure on that date. we had significantly bigger response to the r.f.p. than expected and we're still waiting on the scoring results from that.

next slide. so on your screen here is the summary of both where we are for budget and protected spend in 2021. then in the table below, a little bit more detail on the actual, including a portion that is attributable to color and one medical. the one medical was doing swabbing and operations for us at the selma site. when we come to a transition, the selma site or demission it to alemany, we're projecting the best cost savings. here the important point or the point that the narrow financial sense is important, the overspending and as you can imagine, we spent a lot of time thinking about how we might bring this closer, spending closer to budget in a variety of ways without reducing -- and

honoring the barrier for testing throughout the city. with this said, if there is a constant effort to engage healthcare systems for additional testing for their members, as well as really support for enhanced billing for when people absolutely need to come through, how do we bill their insurers for those costs? there's a real point of focus in the r.f.p. to increase the services around billing. then in addition, there are recently awarded grants from the state that will bolster and support our own lab capacity that we hope to take some of the pressure away from the additional testing through this contract, these contracts that come and will be coming through the r.f.p. so with that said, i'm happy to

take questions. >> chair mandelman, i don't have questions and given the previous hearing, i wanted to compress and truncate this hearing. many of the questions were asked and answer in the previous hearing, so i have no questions. >> then let's go to public comment. >> thank you mr. chairman. please let us know if we have any callers that are ready. for those who connected to our meeting via phone, please press star 3 to talk about this item. you will hear a prompt that indicates your line has been unmuted. for those watching our meeting or watching a streaming link through sfgov.org or elsewhere, please call in by following the

instructions which are displayed on your screen by dialing 415-655-0001, access code: 146-044-5940. the meeting i.d. is 146-044-5940. then press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and star 3 to enter the queue to speak. could you let us know if we have any callers. >> yes, we have two callers in the queue. >> okay, and i will remind everyone that our speakers have two minutes. we ask that you speak your first and last name clearly and speak directly into the phone. you are encouraged to send a statement to our committee clerk for inclusion in the official file. >> yes, my name is mark and i'm

with mission local. i have a question about the number of test. in the last hearing, at the end of september, showing less than 185,000 tests have been taken by the city. although now they are claiming 611 thousand -- excuse me. again they said it was 500,000. that's substantially less than half that had been done by the city. then i'm wondering about the discrepancy and also whether the rest of the tests are being done by providers and who those private providers are that are doing the majority of the

testing. >> if you mr. reporter would like to ask those questions to the department of public health directly, this is not a question and answer period. >> that would be true. if there are no more comment from that caller, let's go to the next caller. >> good morning public safety committee, actually good afternoon now. i am concerned about your testing protocols in the city. i have seen and notice many contracts go around and no supervision for the process. it seems like the city is allowing this by not having the board of supervisors approve. many seem to be breaking the rules or having some insight beforehand. i am just so frustrated and i'm no longer sure on how they're making these decisions and if they're equal.

we're proud to be in the yellow here, but it's not acceptable to bypass the contracting laws. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi, my name is dominic wilson. it's clear to me that there have been a number of hasty decisions regarding these contracts. they weren't vetted towards testing and there wasn't a proper r.s.p. process in place. so they broke the rules in securing contracts. are we able to see the deals that were made? if these contracts were authorized by the board of supervisors, then who did authorize them? i'm just -- the lack of

transparency is ludicrous and testing was messed up and it began when the single occupancy cards were allowed. that's all i have to say about that. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> mr. chair, that complete it is queue. >> all right, public comment is now closed. supervisor peskin, any final thoughts? >> thank you all for your time and indulgence and to supervisors walton for the previous hearing. if one of you would like to file this item, and if it needs to be reintroduced, i will do so in the future. >> i will move that we file this item. >> on the motion offered by chair mandelman that this hearing be filed. chair stefani. >> aye. >> member walton. >> aye. >> chair mandelman. >> aye. >> mr. chair, there are three

ayes. >> the motion passes. mr. clerk, do we have anymore items before us today. >> there is no further business. >> then we are adjourned. thanks everybody. w w watching. >> you're watching coping with covid-19 with chris manners. today's special guest is julie

kirschbaum. >> hi. i'm chris manners. you're watching coping with covid-19. today, i'm speaking with the executive director of the sfmta. thank you and welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> can we begin by talking about the services that have been suspended and there have been changes to the services that are still running? >> absolutely. we've had to make really significant changes to our services in response to covid-19. initially going down to as few as 17 routes. these are routes that people use to get to work or the hospital, grocery stores, really to make the most essential trips that are needed throughout this process. we've been fortunate over the

last, say, five or six weeks, that our staffing levels have gotten better, and as we've increased our cleaning capacity, that we've been able to add some community services back. we've added a shuttle on pacific avenue, which is helping seniors get to grocery stores in chinatown. we've added a community inline bus in ingleside, and we've been adding more service to our core network. our corridors like mission street, potrero near s.f. general, and really needing increasingly more and more service in order to prevent spacing and -- keep spacing and prevent crowding on the bus. >> thank you. what measures have you been taking to prevent passengers on

the bus? >> your safety has been our top priority and is guiding everything that we do. the most critical thing that we're doing is the mask requirement, where we're requiring people, if you're going to ride muni, to do it safely, protecting yourself and others from germs. we've also implemented back door boarding, so except for our customers with disabilities that will need the support of the front door, the ramp, or the leader, we're asking customers to enter from the back to give extra spacing to our operators. we've provided operators with all of the protective equipment that they need to do the job safely, including gloves and masks, and we're really fortunately that our bus -- fortunate that our buses are equipped with a plexi glass door that creates an operating space for our operators.

and some of services like the cable car historic trolleys we don't have that same protection, we suspended early on in this process. we want our operators to have the physical separation that they need to stay safe on the road. >> absolutely. so how have you been managing physical distancing on public transportation? what happens if a bus gets full? >> great question. we have reduced the number of people that we consider a bus to be crowded, so heading into this, we might have had 70 or 80 people on the bus. now, it's closer to 20. we also are monitoring our passenger loads. both our operators are monitoring them as well as we're monitoring them remotely from our transportation management center. if the bus does get too crowded, the operators have a

drop-off only sign, and they stop picking passengers up until enough exit the vehicle. it might be a little bit inconvenient if you're waiting for a bus and it doesn't stop to pick you up, but there's another one coming behind it so we can make sure that you have social distancing throughout this process. >> what other ways have you been letting passengers and residents know about these changes and new policies? >> we've been using all methods to keep customers informed about all of these changes. we've put up almost 2,000 signs and posters at our bus stops in multiple languages, letting people know when routes have been eliminated, when hours have changed, when service has changed. we've also been putting it up

through social media and neighborhood groups, and also really relying on the media and press to notify customers about changing. we want the public to know what to expect in this really unique and unusual time to make things as convenient as possible. >> quite right, yes. other than the operators themselves, i know you have a very large support staff. have you made changes at your muni facilities, as well. >> sfmta has 29 facilities, and enhancing safety at those facilities has really been a team effort. we have an amazing custodial crew that's been doing deep cleanings. we were able to take staff that had been cleaning the subway stations and dedicate them to our facilities. we have also seen staff at

every level jump in and help with daily cleanings in places like common areas, desks, tools. everyone is pitching in to wipe stuff down, which makes a big difference. we are proud of the fact that we haven't had any clusters of staff who have had the virus or really any examples of staff catching it from each other, and we feel it's because of the steps that we're taking to keep people safe at work. we're also taking ideas from everywhere in the organization. that includes safety briefings, rather than doing them in a small room, doing them outside, in a parking lot. in order to get to job sites, staff had previously taken three or four people in a city

truck. now, we're taking them in a bus so they can actually space out during the trip to the site. >> oh, that's great stuff. when we look at the transportation system as a whole, what additional steps have been taken to encourage people to consider alternative forms of transit. >> we have been looking at it as a system in part because the bus system is doing less than it has in the past because we have fewer routes and because we have fewer people riding. one example is our e.t.c. program, which is a taxi-based program that seniors and people with disabilities can sign up for and use a taxi for essential trips at a highly discounted rate. we're also looking at a transit

system that people can get out walking or biking. >> how are we planning on next steps as restrictions ease and we move into phase two and eventually phases three and four? >> i think probably our biggest thing that we're getting ready for right now is the start of school in august, and make sure that we're ready, not only to accommodate all of the general activities, like going to restaurants and recreation, but also getting kids to school safely. we're also looking at what are other cities doing around the world that we can learn from, and that's where we are forming our work, as well. we are really fortunate that we had an opportunity to skype with taipei, a city that's had a lot of success addressing the virus. the mayor actually joined the skype call, and one of the things that they shared with

us, their biggest success has come with 100% compliance masks on mass transit. in other cases, monitoring for temperatures and really making sure that people were riding, that they were riding healthy, so we're trying to model and apply those best practices to our system and learn as much as we can through this process. >> well, that's fantastic information. i really appreciate you coming on the show, miss kirschbaum. thank you for the time you've given us today. >> thank you. >> thanks again. well, that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more covid-19 relates information shortly. you've been watching coping with covid-19. i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

>> hi. i'm joel. i worry about san francisco's future because san francisco has worried about the families for too long. the budget has doubled in a decade and nothing is twice as good. now we're facing massive deficits. city hall has to stop treating residents like a never ending a.t.m. we need to audit every program

and only pay for what works. we noticed crimes like burglary and homicide are up, so we still need police to protect the public, and we can't forget about the victims of crime. i've lived in san francisco for 22 years. i've lived in district seven for a decade. i worked for many years as a journalist. i worked hard at city hall to give residents a choice. i was raised by my single mom and grandmother. they didn't have much education, but they taught me how to get things done with the resources i have. i'm running for supervisor to be an advocate for parents, small businesses, and homeowners. city hall should be treating them like customers, without

without them, we don't have a city. an entrepreneur should be able to open a business without road blocks. people should feel safe living here. that means focusing on the basics and getting the basics right: clean streets, less crime, and better services. my name is joel engardio. please, vote joel engardio on your ballot. >> hello. my name is steven martin pinto, and i hope to be your next district 7 supervisor. my family has lived here since 1848. i have been involved in local politics ever since i moved back after leaving the military in 2014. i've served as president of the sunnyside neighborhood association, secretary of the west of twin peaks central council, and commissioner of veterans affairs.

i'm different from anyone else running in the entire city. honesty, straight talk, availability, and common sense. when was the last time you hear anyone mention those as themes of their campaign. when i decided to run, i decided to always tell the truth and never hold back. as supervisor, i plan to take a bold stance on the issues. first of all, i will have a see ror tolerance policy for crime, garbage, and drug dealing on our streets, and that position is nonnegotiatable. second, i will audit all the nonprofits that do business with the city to discover fraud and abuse. our homeless need real help. i will not defund the police. instead, i will seek to increase funding while pushing for the construction of a

multiacre, fully modern joint police-fire training facility. i will aggressively expand muni metro by pushing for the construction of more subways and supported light rail. finally, i will do whatever it takes to protect small business by reducing fees and permits. i humbly ask for your first, second, our third choice votes. let's bring common sense back to san francisco polictics. >> my name is ben matranga. as a new father and a first time homeowner, i know the stakes in this election are high, and i know our city is calling out for leaders that can use common sense, standup for our values, and actually deliver on our promises. as your supervisor, i will focus on helping small businesses and local residents

recover from covid-19. i will work to address homelessness with compassion and accountability. let me tell you about my background. i was born and raised in district 7. i'm a fifth generation san franciscan, and i met my wife in high school at st. ignatius. professionally, i've worked with entrepreneurs building hospitals and transportation infrastructure around the world. i've served on the board of five companies, and i've led multimillion dollar investments alongside the u.s. government, the world bank, and for tune 500 companies -- fortune 500 companies. previously, i worked for mayor ed lee and serves as san francisco -- served as san

francisco's first ever pedestrian director. we were able to cut red tape, and we delivered more than 13 miles of improvements, on time and under budget. i led our neighborhood emergency response to covid-19, and we've distributed over 5,000 masks. i've been endorsed by dianne feinstein, and former district 7 supervisor tony hall. i respectfully ask for your number one vote this election. thank you. >> hi. my name is myrna melgar, and i'm a candidate for the board of supervisors district 7. i am a mother of three girls and have lived in ingleside terrace with my family for the past 2e7 yearten years. i was a legislative aide to two members of the board of supervisors: jose medina and

eric mar and also worked for mayor good afternoon newsom. i was -- gavin newsom. i was also the president of the planning commission until january of this year. the policy decisions we made today to adapt to changes on housing, employment, land use, transportation services, and the investments we make to our infrastructure can pave the way to our continuing future as a world class city of opportunity. i i mmigrated to san francisco from el salavador. my life experience has given me a unique ability to negotiate through conflict and make progress on the things that i believe in and to understand

that income inequality is not a sustainable system, and we need to tackle our homelessness and afford janel affordable housing crisis. i will support my d-7 community and rebuild a san francisco of opportunity and compassion, a city where no one gets left behind. thank you. >> after serving as a city official for 20 years under five mayor, i was leaving my position of the san francisco department on the status of women the very week that mayor breed issued the shelter in place order. i had a choice to make. should i gather up the beautiful bouquets or declare my candidacy in d-7 to help my city, my neighbors?

raised in san francisco, i've lived in district 7 with my spouse for over 15 years and raised our two adult daughters here. i'm the only candidate in this race who won elections before. as a city department head, i was held accountable for every public dollar i spent. with a focus on ending violence against women, i managed my department budget through the 2008 downturn and doubled our budget with $10 million in outside funning, by partnering with law enforcement and neighborhood advocates, we eliminated domestic violence homicide to zero. this race is about what it means to be san franciscans. we all want the safe things: to live in a safe neighborhood and to live in a city that treats everyone humanely. i will fight to strengthen our

over 40 distinct neighborhoods in district 7. i will fight to expand public safety with more community policing and foot patrols, and i will fight to sustain our local businesses with new ways of doing business. i'm emily murase for district 7 supervisor, and i ask for your number one vote on election day.

>> all right, welcome, everyone. [applause] today is the day, dr. colfax. today is the day. it's the day that our kids get back to the serious business of play, and so i'm thrilled to be here with our mayor, supervisor safai and our director of public health, and many community leaders and wonderful people to celebrate the re-opening of playgrounds all across the city starting right now. we are here at mersed heights, so we're not just opening up the

gates to playgrounds but we're also cutting ribbons on five amazing playgrounds that have just been waiting for children that have been renovated through the let's play s.f. initiative, which is is an incredible partnership between the recreation and the park department and the parks alliance, san francisco voters who support park bonds, and through let's play s.f. we're actually transforming 13 playgrounds that have been loved to death across our city and to creative places that spark imagination, connection, and healthy bodies and minds. so without further adieu it is my great pleasure to introduce our parks champion-in-chief who has been a great nudge to make this happen. thank you, mayor. >> thank you. and thank you, phil, and thank you to all of the families in san francisco for your understanding and your patience as we deal with a very, very

challenging time, one that none of us could have ever predicted. and i'm so excited to be here at mersed heights because i know how hard this community worked to get this park to be a priority. for so many years -- i see mary harris over there shaking her head hard. for so many years, and a lot of the people in this community, they have been fighting to make sure that this part of town receives the support and the attention that it deserves. there are families here and there are generations of kids growing up in this neighborhood and in this community. and they deserved the opportunity to make sure that we rebuild the library, which your supervisor is pushing for. that we rebuild the parks and all of the other amenities that make life so great in san francisco. and here we are, because i'll

tell you, supervisor, not too long ago i know that we came here, and we cut the ribbon -- or we broke the ground -- and this happened really fast. this is pretty amazing. and, you know, to make a park like this to happen, and it is absolutely beautiful! it is so amazing. and i am so happy that today finally kids will be able to play in playgrounds all over san francisco. this is amazing. and i'll tell you that the reason why i'm so happy, because it is hard for children right now. you know, our private schools have opened and our public schools haven't. kids are not in school and they're in front of a screen on a regular basis. and that is not good for them. we know that it's not good for them. it's why i have been putting, of course, as much pressure as i can on the public to do our part

to wear our masks and to wash our hands and to socially distance ourselves, and as much as we want to be around each other we have to make sacrifices for our children. so that they can go back to school, so they can play in playgrounds, so they can have a well-rounded life, because just imagine -- this is hard on us as adults. just imagine how much harder it is on kids. how tough it is, and how we are seeing even now -- even though we're providing devices and internet and other resources to kids, the achievement gap is still growing wide. so we have a lot of work to do. and that's why today is so amazing. and it's so exciting. because it's not just that we're opening up all of these playgrounds, we have renovated a number of playgrounds in san francisco, and so kids are going to have an opportunity to just

enjoy something new and exciting in the city. i am excited and i'm grateful to you, phil, and i'm grateful to the parks alliance and the let's play initiative and all of the friends of mersed heights, you will hear from some community members here today, because this work happened because of this community. this work happened because you had an incredible leader in supervisor safai. so with strong leadership, with strong community support, with collaboration and with years -- wait -- decades of advocacy, you have made something incredible happen for the kids of this community, for the kids who are part of this learning hub, who are hoping that this press conference is over as quick as possible so they can come and play in this playground. in fact, it won't bother me if they play on the playground during this conference, just let

them have a good time. because that's where we are now. and what this also does is that it gives us hope. it gives us hope that the time that we've spent in isolation, the time that we have spent, you know, doing what we needed to do during this pandemic, we know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. we know that good things can happen if we all do our part. and so i really, really, really want to thank all of you so much for being here, so much for continuing to support our parks and the bonds that the voters have always voted to support because that's how this happens. and it is amazing, and it's a beautiful day, and, supervisor, you should be so proud of what you have been able to accomplish for this community, unlike never before, and we are so grateful for your strong advocacy and leadership. and, ladies and gentlemen, i want to introduce the district 11 supervisor, supervisor safai.

[applause] >> thank you, madam mayor. this day is super special. i'll just say that. when i first started working in this community, the mantra was, why are we always treated like the forgotten part of san francisco? why are we not getting our fair share? why are the working people -- why are the hard-working people that get up and make this city run every day treated like this? and if you saw this playground, if you saw this fence, right, phil, it looked like a prison yard fence. it looked like something that you would never want to bring your family to. the same at mersed -- excuse me, allis-chalmers that is open today. and they used to ride by that to say look at how awful this park is, will you please give us money, because down the street was daily city and it was

shining. but i can say with full confidence that this community fought hard, this community advocated and never gave up. i want to give a special shoutout to renard menro, working here tirelessly on a little island by himself, using every little resource he has, going into his own pockets often, to make sure that this community had something. i want to thank miss wilma gardner, she couldn't join us today and she lives right across the street there and said i want to see this park rebuilt before i die. that's what she told me when i met her years ago. and i'm sorry that she couldn't be here today. there's a lot of people that couldn't actually physically be here, but all of their blood, sweat and tears went into this. i want to thank phil ginsburg and his staff. they have made a commitment to ensuring that the neighborhoods that have the most children, like ours, under the age of 18

get their fair share. and all of their hard-working staff. and i want to especially thank miss mayor, madam, london breed, because every single thing -- now don't get jealous of the supervisors -- every single thing that i have brought to her to talk about this community she has said, yes. when we asked her for a new library, she said, yes. when we asked her for a new job center, she funded that and we opened that up a year ago to this day. when we said three years ago -- not recently -- but three years ago when we said that the african american community is hurting she said, asha, you don't need to tell me, i know. and i said we're investing in this, and she said, yes. so this is one big step forward and i want to thank all of the people that have been involved in this, and all of the people that have dedicated themselves to this, and to all of the children and families that will enjoy this for many, many years to come. this is a new day in district

11, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor safai. the mayor and the supervisor, you know, eloquently articulated the importance of this moment. playgrounds are happy, they're joyous, but for children and their development and their social and emotional development and their ability to problem solve and the ability to take risks and the ability to share and to collaborate, this is really serious stuff to get kids back on our playgrounds again. i think that the mayor said it, that kids have taken it on the chin a little bit during this pandemic, let's be honest. and i'm grateful to the mayor and to supervisor safai and the community for screaming out on behalf of our children. we have to now do the right thing. playgrounds are open. we need to keep our kids safe and our families safe. so, please -- yes, there are rules and there are capacity

limits. there are -- we are supposed to continue to social distance and continue to wear a mask, right? do not eat and drink in these spaces. let's all do the right things so that our children and san francisco families can be healthy. so the last point they want to make before bringing up our next speaker -- yes, thank you, mayor. okay, do not -- if you are a parent, when you bring your kid to a playground, do not do this -- pay attention. no cellphone. pay attention to where your kids are and how they're engaging on these spaces. again, the goal here is only to allow our kids to have the freedom to play and to do it in a healthy way. one last point which is that this should be a reminder as both the mayor and supervisor safai mentioned about the importance of investing in our parks. san francisco has the best park system in the united states of america. it is 150 years old. but we have to continue to invest in it, continue to

nurture in it so we no longer have fences that look like jails and playgrounds that aren't deserving of the children who use them. so i want to thank all san francisco voters for supporting the 2012 clean and safe neighborhoods park fund, without which we would not be here today. our most important partner in all of this are our friends at the department of public health who have as a tough a job as anybody right now in trying to figure out how to allow us to safely resume some sense of normalcy. and i am incredibly grateful to dr. colfax and dr. aragon and their team for working with us and truly understanding the importance and the urgency of opening up playgrounds. so dr. colfax, the mic is yours. >> well, thank you, director ginsburg, and really to acknowledge our gratitude to mayor breed, supervisors safai,

director su, and mr. robert ellis for their leadership in this work. you know that there's been so many challenging days during this pandemic. and so many sad days. and this is such a day of gratitude and beauty. look out it here, and look at the kids playing. this is a pivotal moment as we work together to slow the spread of covid and realize that our children must go back to doing the things that we know that are important for their health and their family's health and the communities' health. the reopening of the playgrounds is an opportunity to get our kids back something that we haven't done since march, march. incredible. we at the health department are so happy to be here as we have worked to get san francisco to this place. to back to where kids can get in an environment where they can thrive, starting with school

programs, community hubs, and elementary schools, step-by-step, and now playgrounds. we have made tremendous progress as a city. and we know that the sacrifice and the dedications of our families and our communities have made the contributions that have succeeded in slowing the spread of covid-19 virus. and i thank you. we thank you. and we want all of our children -- all of our children -- to continue to enjoy the reopening of activities. and so parents, we need your help in ensuring that we open playgrounds as safely as possible. when visiting playgrounds, please be sure that your family follows the health and safety rules for playground visitors. prepare your family for less children and for socially distanced fun. and i wouldn't be doing my job,

you know what comes next, if i wouldn't remind people to, please, wear a face covering. they are required for all playground visitors, aged 2 and over. please limit your stay to 30 minutes when other households are present, so that other people can also enjoy the playground. and, please, practice that good hygiene. and although playgrounds are outdoors, we still want to be cautious. we need everyone's help in sustaining our gain and the progress that we have made. so let's have fun today. let's take advantage of these beautiful seasonal days that we have in san francisco, and, again, thank you mayor breed, supervisor safai and director ginsburg for your partnership and work. and everyone, let's continue to play it safe. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, dr. colfax. so we're now going to hear from two important community members that have fought for children and for families in this

neighborhood. our first speaker, renard monroe, the executive director of youth first. you've been amazing. thank you for your partnership in our community hub program. i want to acknowledge executive director, dr. mariea su, my partner in crime and all things kids and families. but, ménard, you are running a model program and you're doing it for kids who really need the support. and we're so grateful to you for your help in keeping these spaces safe and clean. please come up and say a few words. [applause] >> good afternoon. this is a bittersweet moment for us as a community, because there are some people before ménard who really put in some hard work to make sure that we have this space for the children and our community. and i need to acknowledge a few

people who didn't make it to see this day. our neighbor, she lived right there, her name was karen mccoy. [applause] she fought and she fought and she had phil's number on speed dial trying to get this place renovated. she didn't make it to see it, she passed away and i'm thankful for her and her daughter, they both passed away. they fought for this park and i'm appreciative of that. and delores, who is also a resident fought for this park. and mary harris and al harris, okay, a lot of people put in -- wilma gardner, a lot of people have been fighting to make sure that this community gets what it needs. i'm just happy to be part of the process and i'm thankful for today and i'm thankful for our mayor to allocate the funds and phil ginsburg, he's been awesome.

it's been awesome. and i appreciate you. he comes out the first day they put this together and went down the slide with the kids and impressed the kids. it's just one of those things where san francisco is supposed to be about community. and these type of events are so important, especially in a times that we're living in and the covid-19. i definitely want to thank our supervisor safai. [applause] for all of his hard work and pushing for our district to make sure that we can have spaces like this. also i want to thank our community as a whole, first and foremost. our residents right here, up and down the street. using this park every day, and we're so happy to have it back open, to have our kids back playing safely and in an environment, and something to be proud of. i'm proud of our district. i'm proud of where we're going. okay, we have organizations and c.b.o.s who are really making a push for this district to get the resources allocated here.

and all of the things that we are doing just to make sure that the community gets what it needs and to make sure that children have a future. so, thank you. [applause] >> thank you, renard. so another community leader that had my phone number on speed dial, my phone number, my email and my twitter and my telegraph handle was edna james. and edna couldn't be here today, but she has asked one of her closest community partners to come up and to say a few words. robert ellis. robert is the vice president of the o.m.i. community action organization and a member of the friends of mersed heights playground, and to say a few words about the power of community when it comes to getting things done. robert, the microphone is yours. >> hi, i wish i had been first.

all of these accolades have been handed out and it's well deserved. and i want to thank our mayor breed for all of her dedication, all of her dedication to the city. and not only she is smart, but she's pretty. so that's a good thing. like i say, i want to thank phil definitely -- if you stand here and you look around you can see the transformation of this park and the future is still bright. i have been on di dixie street r the last 50 years and i have seen the park deteriorate and now it's like a phoenix rising from the sun. so you see that it's bringing a whole new atmosphere to the community. not only for the children, but also for the adults and for

everybody in the community and the city. and i'm certainly glad to be a part of it and i want to apologize -- not apologize, but i want to give my regrets to miss james, the well documented partner was unable to be here today. so i want to thank everyone that invited me and phil and just say, phil, you're doing a wonderful job. keep up the good work. and god bless you. thank you. >> just a few quick acknowledgements and then we're going to wrap up and if there are any questions you have a few people here who might be able to answer them. just a couple of questions. but i i want to recognize through the san francisco park alliance that without the san francisco park alliance, make no mistake that we would not be renovating or ribbon cutting five new playgrounds.

their partnership is invaluable and they lead with their heart and they care about the parks. thank you, san francisco park alliance. [applause] and then last to my own team, lisa brampton, lisa, thank you for all that you have done to bring private resources to help to supplement what the voters have done to allow us to renovate these playgrounds. to our park supervisor, brandon young bright and early here, mayor, making sure that this place looked super clean. so, thank you, brandon, for being here. and to dan mauer, our project manager for this particular project, and to all of the rec and park staff who really had to hustle to make sure that you can see these markings on the ground and you can see all of the signs in the last 36 hours we have put out maybe 750 signs and have marked playgrounds and, yeah, my staff always rises to the occasion. so a big shout out to the rec

and park staff. let's let them play. thanks, everyone.

>> it is