>> president walton: good afternoon. welcome to the regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk please call the roll. >> clerk: thank you mr. president. [roll call vote] supervisor chan not present.

mr. president, all members are present. >> president walton: thank you. the san francisco board of supervisors acknowledges that we are on the unseated homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in with their traditions the ramaytush ohlone have never seeded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this place. as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working

on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first people. colleagues, please stand with me and recite the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] on behalf of the board of supervisors, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgov tv. who record each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. do we have any communications?

>> clerk: yes. i have a communication to the general public interested in accessing this meeting plotely. you may do so through cable cast on sfgov tv award winning channel 26 or by viewing the live stream at sfgovtv.org. i most efficient way is to listen through your phone where you will be in live sync. the telephone number is streaming on your screen it is (415)655-0001. when you hear the prompt, enter the meeting i.d. 2488 462 1722. press pound twice. you will know you have joined the meeting when you hear the discussion. however your line will be muted. once you're ready to provide comment, press star 3 to get into the speaker's queue. when it is your turn, listen carefully for the prompt and

begin speaking your comments. agenda content eligible for your comment is limited to the following items. the board request your public testimony on the special orders scheduled not to begin before 3:00 p.m. item 24, that's the public hearing on the update on findings and recommendations regarding law enforcement practices. item 25 is the public hearing on the update to the city's response to address the omicron surge. the second area of comment is once item 27 is called, the board will request general public comment. there are several areas that are permitted to speak to. the approval of the december 23, 2021 special board meeting minutes. items that are on the latter section of the agenda, items 28-31. listing the matters for adoption without committee reference. the matters not on the agenda but within subject matter jurisdiction of the board of

supervisors. all other agenda content would have reported out by the appropriate committee where the public comment requirement was fulfilled. the board of supervisors will accept your written correspondence by u.s. mail. using the address the san francisco board of supervisors, number 1, carlton b. goodlett place, city hall 224, san francisco, california, 94102. or our e-mail address, that's bosatsfgovtv.org. you are experiencing trouble connecting call the clerk's office. we have a clerk standing by to

assist you. that concludes my communication. >> president walton: thank you. before we get started, just a friendly reminder, please mute your microphones when you are not speaking. we are now at approval of minutes. today we are approving the meeting minutes from the december 23, 2021 special board meeting. does anyone have any changes to the minutes? i don't see anyone. entertain a motion to approve these minutes made by supervisor peskin and seconded by supervisor preston. madam clerk, the roll please. >> clerk: on the minutes presented. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: the minute will be approved after public comment as presented. we are now at our consent agenda items 1-3. >> clerk: these items are considered to be routine. if a member objects an item maybe removed and considered separately. i don't see anyone on the roster. please call the roll. >> clerk: on items 1-3. [roll call vote].

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection these ordinances are passed unanimously. madam clerk, please call item number 4. >> clerk: item 4. is an ordinance to approve a lease between the city and dolphin swimming and boating club for city property located at 502 and 504 jefferson street for a 25-year term in the 24-year option to extend containing general public access requirements and to waive the administrative code market rent determination requirement that otherwise would apply to this lease and to affirm the ceqa

determination. >> president walton: thank you. please call the roster for item number. >> clerk: on item 4. [roll call vote] there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. please call item 5. >> clerk: an ordinance to retroactively authorize the department of public health to extend approximately $658,000 grant from the california department of public health to

participate in a program entitled california home visiting state general fund expansion. for a term through july 1, 2021 through june 30, 2023. to provide for the additional one grant funded full time position a public health nurse. >> president walton: thank you. i don't see anyone on the roster. please call the roll. >> clerk: on item 5. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. please call item 6. >> clerk: item 6 is an ordinance to amend the administrative code to authorize the $7000 cash revolving fund for the office of the city administrator and real estate division. >> president walton: thank you. i do not see anyone on the roll. please call the roll. >> clerk: on item 6. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: this ordinance passed on first reading unanimously. please call item 7. >> clerk: a resolution to authorize the office of contract administration to enter into a peoplesoft contract with intervision systems llc to purchase networking equipment, software, hardware manufactured by juniper network inc. through january 31, 2027. >> president walton: please call the roll for item 7. >> clerk: on item 7. [roll call vote].

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection this resolution is adopted unanimously. please call item number 8. >> clerk: resolution to retroactively authorize the department of children youth and their families to extend $10 million grant from crankstart to support community-based organizations to provide before and after care programs for the san francisco unified school district for fiscal years 2021-22 and 22-23. >> president walton: thank you.

seeing no one on the roster. please call the roll. >> clerk: on item 8. [roll call vote]. there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. this resolution is adopted unanimously. please call item number 9. >> clerk: a resolution to retroactively authorize the office of economic and workforce development to accept $500 million from the north valley workforce development board to expand the public

workforce development system to respond to additional 100 dislocated workers impacted by covid-19. >> president walton: i want to make sure that we clear, that amount is $500,000 correct? >> clerk: yes, apologies. >> president walton: thank you so much. please call the roll for item number 9. >> clerk: on item 9. [roll call vote].

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection this resolution is adopted unanimously. please call item number 10. >> clerk: a resolution to approve the reissuance of revenue obligations by the california enterprise development authority for $11.4 million to finance or refinance certain educational and related facilities owned by the national center for international schools. >> president walton: thank you. i don't see anyone on the roster. please call the roll. >> clerk: on item 10. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection this resolution is adopted unanimously. please call items 11 and 12 together? >> clerk: items 11 and 12 called together pertain to the power station, item 11 establishes the city and county of san francisco special tax district number 22-1 improvement area one. this item sets public hearing date for march 8, 2022 at 3:00. item 12 is the intention to incur bond debt for the city and county of san francisco special tax district 22-1 with other

matters defined within the resolution. >> president walton: i do have a small amendment to item number 12 on page 4 line 10. i would like to add the amendment to set the time to 3:00 p.m. similar to the amendment made to item number 11 in committee. can i get a second? seconded by supervisor preston. >> clerk: on the motion to amend item 12 to amend 3:00 p.m. time certain. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. item 12 is amended. can we take the roll on both of these items please. >> clerk: on items 11 and 12, 12 as amended. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: without objection, these resolutions are adopted as amended unanimously. please call items number 13-18 together. >> clerk: item 13-18 comprised six resolutions to receive and approve annual reports for various community benefit districts for fiscal year 2019-2020. item 13 received the annual report for the yerba buena community benefit district. item 14 the ocean avenue community district, item 15 castro upper market district. the item 16 annual report for the noe valley district. item 18 receive and approve the annual report for the lower polk community district for fiscal

years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. >> president walton: i don't see anyone on the roster. please call the roll for items 13-18. >> clerk: on items 13-18. [roll call vote] there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thee resolutions are adopted unanimously. please call item number 19.

>> clerk: item 19 is an ordinance to amended planning code to designate as landmark the casa sanchez building at 2778, 24th street. >> president walton: please call the roll for item 19. >> clerk: on item 19. [roll call vote]

there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. please call item number 20. >> clerk: to amend the administrative code to require landlords pursuing certain types of evicks to first provide their tenants with written notice and to end an opportunity to cure unless the eviction is base the on a safety issue and to make the appropriate findings. >> president walton: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you. this board of supervisors has come together to ban most evictions with limited exceptions for health and safety throughout the pandemic. we did so as a public health measure. making eviction a last resort is a good policy not just during

covid but for the future of our city. it's important that we have take things that work in our pandemic response. one of the biggest positive changes during covid has been for the most part, making evictions a tool of last resort rather than a starting point for landlord-tenant dispute. with that context before you today is our eviction diversion ordinance and under this simple but impactful proposal before having grounds to serve a three-day econviction notice, a landlord is required to give the tenant a 10 day warning. allowing the tenant to correct the behavior at issue. as it stands now, a landlord can demand rent for example, on day one and if a tenant can't come up with the rent within three days, the tenant is subject to eviction. that landlord can evict if the tenant come up with the funnel rent on the fourth and fifth

day. the same is true for other types of evictions. this happens too often and it's just wrong. the fact is as a society, we don't resolve any other disputes like this. home foreclosures, consumer debts, car repossession, you name it. in no other situation does someone have just three days before losing their home or property but for some reason our system accepts three days as sufficient for resolving landlord-tenant disputes. ten days warning before eviction will be a game changer with advocates predicting this could help save thousands of san franciscans and resolve pending disputes without litigation. i want to thank my co-sponsor president walton, presidents chan, peskin, ronen, haney and melgar and my legislative aid and anti-displacement coalition

for working closely with my office to craft this proposal as well as the city attorney's office. i urge you to support. thank you. >> president walton: thank you. i don't see anyone else on the roll. please call the roll for item number 20. >> clerk: on item 20. [roll call vote] there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: this ordinance is passed on first

reading unanimously. madam clerk, let's go to our 2:30 order of business. >> clerk: official order 2:30, the recognition of commendation to the city and county of san francisco. >> president walton: thank you so much. colleagues, we have received three commendation requests for today. just reminder to colleagues, please remember to submit commendation requests by the end of the day on thursdays before board meetings so we can have time to make sure everyone is prepared for these special presentations. today we will go by roll call order which means i will be presenting first and today i wish to acknowledge the work of bayview hunters point advocates.

the advocates established in 1994 as a grassroots organization founded, governed. and operated by long-term members of the vulnerable bayview hunters point neighborhood in san francisco. their programs combine community organizing with education, advocacy and direct services. they take an active role in mobilizing the bayview hunters point neighborhood on issues of environmental and economic justice. bayview hunters point community advocates work connected neighborhood residents with environmental justice issues in our neighborhood, seeking to increase community participation and environmental decision-making and to build skills in the community to support a cleaner environmental future.

bayview hunters point programs help people live longer, healthier lives of residents through new cohorts of environmental justice advocates. building and documenting strong social networks with neighbors and advocacy to local decision makers. under the leadership of michelle pierce, the executive director, the advocates have been able to expand their footprint since one onset of this pandemic. the advocates are a major partner in our covid response. before the data demonstrated why our community needed more resources, they were pushing for more community testing sites and more p.p.e. to protect people in community. as vehicle encampments grew and along side streets in the bay

view hunters point community. the advocates went door-to-door and begun to identify the need and provided resources to those families in need. like food, clothing and connection to services. i am so grateful and appreciative of this organization and their staff. i would like to thank the entire staff. executive director michelle pierce, anthony kelly, anthony khalil, anthony austin, da leila, cory monroe, jan zu and a tamia -- here to say a brief

thank you is mr. cory monroe. i don't see on camera. >> hello. how you doing? we wanted to say thank you. we really appreciate the acknowledgement from the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm here with anthony khalil and anthony austin. we're so thankful on behalf of michelle pierce, our executive director and tony kelly our supervisor, we're just thoughtful. thank you for giving a shot out to maya bonner who did a lot of work. we'll forever miss her and hold her in our thoughts. we're just really grateful for this acknowledgement, he go out and help people. we do it from our heart. we love the people in our community. the people really appreciate it and they are grateful for the work we're doing. >> if i may take a moment.

thank you president of the board, thank you supervisors. for that moment, to recognize selfless life of a dear center maya bonner who served countless people during the pandemic continuously with the food program as well as food insecure families here in district 10, bayview hunters point. we want to recognize her life for doing the work. i want to take this moment to salute this recognition to continue that legacy of not looking outside of our community but looking within. it takes each one of us. >> president walton: thank you so much, bayview hunters point advocates for your tremendous service and community. [ applause ] now we have commendation by

supervisor rafael mandelman. >> supervisor mandelman: last fall, the spread of the delta variant, constituent resources stretched thin. the leaders of the lgbtq cultural district recognized need for the castro. the narrative until that point has been that the castro didn't need a drop in vaccine sites. that narrative ignored the relate as a hub for lgbtq people from across the city with lots of visitors who might not have access to insurance and vaccines. that narrative ignored the disproportionate the risk people

living with hiv and lgbtq seniors faced in this pandemic and many healthcare providers failed to provide covid-19 testing despite health orders. in response to district 10, the castro lgbtq hub the site for drop -- their timing counterhave been better with the hub as a critical resource. as weekly case numbers soared, the lines around the hub grew longer every saturday. hundreds of people get tested there every week and over 1000 vaccines and booster shots have been administered there. hub continues to play an integral role in keeping san franciscos safe.

i want to thank the following individuals for their work to create and operate the castro hub. elizabeth landon, district communicates chair, ceasar -- thank you all for your commitment to keeping the castro and lgbtq community safe.

>> hi, everyone. thank you so much supervisor mandelman. i'm the program associate here at the castro lgbtq culture district and lead of our covid-19 hub. since the creation of our covid-19 hub, supervisor mandelman and his staff have shown up for us from dealing and volunteering at the hub. we felt your presence. our community thanks you so much. we started the commission because we see a need. we did this not only for the communities and our surrounding cultural districts. we saw they were being hit hard and just -- we extended an helping hand. we are a collective effort.

we vaccinated over a thousand people and thousands more tested. the thing is though, we did not just deliver vaccine and tests, we delivered a peace of mind. they came to our hub in emotional distress looking for basic access to testing and to testing with vaccinations after being turned away everywhere else. the community aspect of our organization and the love we provided eased these troubles and emotions. that's what i'm most proud of. i want to identify some of the organizations that came together to help out.

thank you everyone for their commitment. thank you for your time. [ applause ] >> president walton: thank you so much. congratulations again to the castro lgbtq community hub. thank you supervisor mandelman. now we have supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. colleagues, this afternoon it's my honor to offer a special commendation today for truly extraordinary woman who i always feel lucky when i bump into her on the crowded streets of chinatown and may be known to many of you. she is celebrating her very auspicious 88th birthday and lead up to the lunar new year. even without the double eight with extra luck and prosperity,

this is a woman who makes her own luck. i known dorothy for many years and is a beloved constituent, and a local and international tour guide for historic deep knowledge of chinatown coupled with creative and magnetic personality had solidified her role as the neighborhood de facto ambassador. to know dorothy polka dot is to love her. she brings a smile to everyone who had the opportunity to meet her on the street in chinatown. building on her travel and tourism degree, she's led 19 groups and peoples republic of china and sheparded trips to east africa and south africa. she's been a tour manager, chinatown tours for over three

decades. in 2020, dorothy's iconic fashion sense were in the book "chinatown pretty" which told stories through unique cultural and street styles. the book raised funds to help aid small businesses in particular restaurants and s.r.o.s. they was brought on to research and help produce with the team at good menacing films and starred in a short film which we will watch a brief teaser of in a moment, about her incredible life and self-discovery community service and progressive political activism. i like to thank james chan for

putting together this clip and encourage everyone to check out the film at good medicine films on venmo. [video] >> i decided to go back to college because i knew i would have to fend for myself financially. i got a degree in travel and tourism, mostly because it was a new curriculum but also i was trying to work through my depression. because of my tourism degree, i not only had the chance to be in china, east africa, central and

south america. all that traveling experience being exposed to so many cultures and people and places, it enriched my life. those experiences influenced my politics and social concerns with poverty, with injustice and it made me even more of a social activist. when i return, i was trying to decide what to do next and chinatown tours opened up. that gave me an opportunity working as a chinatown tour guide to reestablish my roots. that's how i ended up in my birthplace. ♪♪

one of our projects was to make an outfit for ourselves. i always like the high collar. this one was inspired thinking about my father. he would deliver 50 pounds, 100-pound rice to the house wives that would come by.

>> supervisor peskin: thank you, john. dorothy polka dot happy birthday to you and thanks for everything you do to bring joy to our community and the floor is yours if you are out there on your computer. >> wow. thank you so much. thank you chan as well as supervisor peskin. i'm so very honored for this opportunity to live so fully in my native chinatown. thank you so much for this honor. i certainly turn to --

[ indiscernible ] >> supervisor peskin: hello, james. >> hi everyone, thank you so much for this beautiful tribute to the human unicorn, herself, ms. dorothy. thank you supervisor for lifting up the community. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: i'm going to give this to you in recognition of your life of community service creative cultivation and active pursuit of anthropological adventures in roles including fashion icon, international tour guide and s.f. chinatown and ambassador. board of supervisors send our highest commendations on your 88th birthday. my chief of staff will take this one moment and bring it to you in chinatown right now. [ applause ]

>> president walton: thank you. congratulations again dorothy. madam clerk, this ends our 2:30 special commendations. we are now on item number 21. >> clerk: an ordinance to amend the police code to require the police department to perform an analysis for the implementation of article 25 which provides for the registration of private protection and security services with the police department to ensure the private security firms abide by all legal requirement and they not engage in racial profiling or other discriminatory practices. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. to give a brief background on this item.

members came forward how private security was operating in our city. many resorted to hiring private security with the police staffing shortages. it's very common in district 2 to have private security in a lot of our neighborhoods. they shared several stories of residents facing harassment by armed private security guards while walking and driving on the public right-of-way. most of the incidents that occurred in district 2, were not reported at the time they occurred. the residents did not know how to report or who to tell. they felt scared and intimidated to do so. as we started to dig into these incidents and what the city's role actually would be in regulating private security, two things happened. we unotherred article xxv of the police code which governs how the city supposed to regulate private security there was a

high profile incident in castro safeway where a young student of color was accused of theft. article 25 was passed by the board of supervisors in novembe. it created a framework for the police department to regulate and oversee the use of private security in 46. under that law, it created a definitions for private security. it required those firms to register with the police department and pay a registration fee, get fingerprinted, provide proof of insurance among other things. requires chief of police to issue i.d. cards to every employee of a private security firm and authorize chief of police to revoke the registration for failing to provide for the provisions of article 25. what became clear almost immediately was that article 25 is not currently implemented in any meaningful way in san francisco, nor have we unearthed

any evidence of it ever been implemented since 1972. we did look. it's clear that the current law is out of date. for example, article 25 does not contain any provision prohibiting discriminatory behavior, bias or harassment. it also does not include a manner for the public to file complaints when issues arise. the issue is further complicated by significant state licensing regulation that come into existence since article 25 was codified nearly 50 years ago. it's currently unclear what is any conflict exist between our local rules and those that exist at the state level. we cannot enact anything at the local level that is by state law. the members of the public that complained to our office and brought up concerns were not happy about this discovery. we vowed to do something about it. given the significant number of

open questions, i sent a letter to chief scott in may 2021 asking about noncompliance of article 25 and how we can correct these deficiencies so anyone feels safe and walk through the neighborhood without risk of victimization or harassment. the ordinance before you today is the next step. it amends the police code to require the police department in consultation with the controllers office to conduct a gaap analysis to determine what part of article 25 is preempted by state law and assess what changes are necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. this means that at a minimum, the results of this analysis will include the development of an sfpd registration process,

guidelines for denial or registration for failing to comply with article 25 and appellant process for denied or revoked registration. also non-discrimination and elimination of bias requirement subject to registration under article 25 and then penalties for engaging in discriminatory practices and drawing a firearm in violation of article 25. finally, process for any alleged violations of article 25 including but not limited to violations of non-discrimination provision. once we received that analysis, which will be done within six months of the passage of this law, we can take the steps to modernize this function. i want to thank those that i worked with on this. president of the police commission, deputy city attorney, chief scott who has

been absolutely wonderful. as soon as we contacted his office, we unearthed article 25. no one knew about it. he was beyond willing to go the distance to headache sure -- make sure we do everything we can to correct -- [ indiscernible ] how we can implement article 25 to fit what is now our baseline in terms of making sure people are engaging in non-discriminatory practices. i have to thank katy cauley and julia for sounding the alarm. i want to thank supervisor haney and mar and i understand too, that supervisor melgar is adding her name as a co-sponsor.

we knew something needs to be done. we are looking forward to following this through, working with our city attorneys office and chief scott. he's been beyond incredible in terms of their willingness to figure out next steps. i urge your support. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: please add me as a co-sponsor. >> supervisor melgar: i want to thank supervisor safai for doing all of this work to update and implement something that we should have done many years ago. mandating comprehensive analysis of what is necessary and feasible to implement article 25

is an important step in revising these provisions. we have seen how much interest there is in my district in private security. we should debate what is going on in terms of our public safety and privatizing public safety. whether or not that's something we want to do. in the last couple of years, we seen reports of security services company without any justification stopping youth from communities of color

walking around in one of our neighborhoods. accused of stealing food or shoplifting. these are deeply humiliating to the individuals involved. the public streets and walkways of san francisco are for all to use as are our stores open to the public. every person who is accessing these public spaces feel free to do so without risks being victimized and humiliated by security services and engaging in discriminatory practices. updating article 25 is a very basic thing that we have to do before embarking on this public conversation. thank you so much supervisor

stefani for doing this work. >> president walton: supervisor mandelman? >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. i would like to be added as a co-sponsor. >> president walton: thank you. thank you supervisor stefani. i don't see anyone on the roster. madam clerk, please call the roll on item 21. >> clerk: on item 21. [roll call vote] there are 11 ayes.

>> president walton: this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. please call item 22. >> clerk: we will be asking for an amendment to this particular item. item 22 currently read the motion to appoint reappointing jason oringer, coyote martin and julienne fischer to the sweat free commission. >> supervisor peskin: just few technical corrections to this motion. in the short title it should say reappointments rather than appointments. david marin should be struck. he was not -- reappointing jason oringer, coyote martin and

julienne fischer. on line 8 insert so it reads reappointment. >> president walton: motion to amend made by supervisor peskin and seconded by supervisor chan. >> clerk: on the motion to amend item 22. [roll call vote] [please stand by] 2

>> clerk: item 23 is a

resolution to prioritize and expedite the vision 0 improvement playgrounds to implement newly allowed changes by december 31st, 2022. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. supervisor melgar. >> supervisor melgar: thank you, president walton. colleagues, we have heard from the sfmta and from the t.a. about their plans for vision 0 improvements and dedicating funding and time to children in schools. i want to thank supervisor stefani for her partnership and working with my office on these issues. to achieve our goals of street safety is to make kid safety our top priority. resources for both infrastructure like stop signs, speed bumps and street changes and also noninfrastructure program events, outreach,

information, to parents and guardians for the safe routes to school programs are essential. neither the infrastructure nor the nonininfrastructure has robust or consistent funding right now, colleagues, and we should be alarmed that the noninfrastructure piece of this program has no identified funding at all beyond the school year. so i look forward to the discussion continuing at the t.a. in april and i will work from now and then to make sure that we are in budget season focusing and providing dedicated funding to protect the safety of our kids. thank you, president walton. >> president walton: thank you supervisor melgar. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: thank you supervisor melgar. please add me as a cosponsor. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor safai. madam clerk, the roll on item

23, please. >> clerk: on item 23, [roll call] there are eleven ayes. >> president walton: thank you, without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, would you please take us to our first 3:00 p.m. special order item, item number 24. >> clerk: item 24, the special order at 3:00 p.m. is rescheduled item from september 22nd, 2020, pursuant to an approved motion contained in file number 201021 for a

public hearing for the board of supervisors convened in a setting as a committee as a whole. today, january 25, 2022, for members to hear and receive updates on the progress and implementation status of the united states department of justice recommendations regarding reforms within the police department. >> president walton: thank you so much, madam clerk. and as you all know, this is a continued item from october 20th, 2020, then january 26th, 2021, and our last committee as a whole was may 25th, 2021, to hear an update on the department of justice mandates for the police department and now we are -- i know we're not to the point where we have our final report, but i did want to make sure that kept the commitment and reported back on any progress and what has taken place between may 25th and today.

so we have kathryn mcgire who is the e.d. of the san francisco police department's strategic management bureau and captain eric altafor to present for the police department today and i believe kathryn, you are going first. >> yes. good afternoon. thank you, president walton. members of the board, madam clerk, members of the public, my name is kathryn mcgire. i'm the executive director of the strategic management bureau of the san francisco police department. i'll be giving you an update as to where we are with respect to the u.s. d.o.j. recommendations today and acting captain altafor will give you on how we intend that we ensure we don't regress in our efforts and we'll also give you a flavor of what the outstanding recommendations are and then

wrap it up with sort of giving you a sense of what's next in the collaborative reform program. so, with that, i will hand it over. i've got to give you the headline which is we are currently at 90% substantially compliant with the recommendations of the u.s. d.o.j. and that totals out at 245 recommendations substantially compliant and that really is pretty balanced across all of the objectives we've talked about in the past with the exception of the recruitment retention and diversity objective. that objective is complete. all recommendations have been evaluated as substantially compliant. so in order to ensure that we made systemic improvements, california department of justice had built sustainability into the

compliance measures of the recommendation and so with that i'm going to have acting captain altafor give us a sense of that program and how we are implementing those built-in sustainability work. go ahead. acting captain. >> thank you, director mcgire. good afternoon president walton, members of the public. i'm the commanding officer of the professional standards at principle policing bureau and today we'll discuss the department's sustainability strategy and the collaborative reform initiative. as director mcgire mentioned, we do have 245 recommendations that have been [inaudible] the director mentioned are compliance measures and a component of those compliance measures are built in

sustainability. as the recommendations reach substantial compliance, the team here which i'll probably reference later as i go through this presentation really reviewed all the recommendations and when reviewing all those recommendations, we identified recommendations that were targeted review and general review. currently, we have 166 recommendations in targeted review. when i mention targeted review, those are recommendations that specifically require sustainability material. those are generally documents, audits, and those are required either quarterly, biannually or annually. and these recommendations don't necessarily require specific reoccurring material, however, it's important that the department continues to review all the recommendations that are in substantial compliance to ensure that we're always improving, we're always looking

for best practices if there is statutory laws that change. if there's anything that can affect that recommendation whether it be department policy or not. so of those 166 recommendations with targeted review, we have an organizational system we use. it helps us use our outlook and we use microsoft teams and that's how we can document the procedures that need to be done and in a timely fashion get the documents that are required based on the compliance measures and we also use that with all our communication and executive sponsors and all our members of the san francisco police department in terms of staying in compliance with the recommendations and substantial compliance and we generally use the same procedures for our general reform as well.

we do have those objectives identified in monthly time frames into which we do all our reviews. in january and february, we're working on our use of force and then built into the sustainability efforts within our unit to ensure that we are staying up to tate with each file that's in substantial compliance and by codifying and identifying our policies, what we do is we create a system that comes online in february that allows us to auto mate the entire communication process where we can reach out. we can put benchmarks on the recommendations and time frames which which it needs to be assessed. we also are in communication collaboration with the department of -- i'm sorry, with the california department of justice. so they're part of the sustainability process too and all this kind of culminates in a quarterly and biannually report that the executive

director and myself do an annual report submitted to the chief for review. and in those times where we're doing our terminal review, that gives us an opportunity to look if there's any deficiencies or any way we can improve our commitment to the community or to the collaborative reform issues. >> sorry. thank you, acting captain. just a few more quick things that i wanted to hop through here. i have to say thank you to the acting captain because where we are now wouldn't have been possible without him and the team. so thank you for that and thank you to the team. so as the acting captain mentioned, continuous improvement is really part of the sustainability process or

the sustainability program. the key pieces to remember with respect to continuous improvement is those, that regular reporting that's happening on an ongoing basis will help us look at ourselves and understand what we're doing and how we're doing and make it perfect as we go forward and in particular, i think one the most important pieces that cal d.o.j. that the u.s. d.o.j. recommended was the ongoing annual review of our department general orders. the general orders are really the foundation and the how where we are going about conducting our work and those policy updates allow us to continuously look for best practices. we actually have best practices

research built into the instruction to our subject matter experts and our best practices research keeps us from becoming stagnant. so we can be the best police department ever right now, but if we don't continue to make those improvements and updates to our policy, we can fall behind again. so the shifting to the outstanding recommendation that are left, we have 27 of those. i wanted to give you a flavor of what the work is that's necessary in order to get those recommendations into substantial compliance and they include about thir teen recommendations that require some kind of system or dash board technology that allow us to dig into the data in a more detailed way and a thoughtful way. seven recommendations require

analytical thought or support and we also have strategic planning recommendations, an annual community policing planning process and then finally, the ability to demonstrate that we are having sustained and ongoing community engagement activities. that's about three recommendations. turning to the future of the c.r.i. program really for the the next two years into april 2024, we have engaged with cal d.o.j. and committed to a relationship with them through that time and we're working with hillard heinz to finalize a contract in which they would also continue their work through that time frame as well. finally, the sort of resources that we know we will need in the next couple of years to

ensure we can complete all the recommendations are really staffing technology and contract funding and i'm happy to answer any questions, but i'm sure those conversations will be surfaced around budget time as well. so i'm happy to take any questions today, thank you for your time. >> president walton: thank you executive director mcgire and captain altafor. i do have a couple questions. when can we expect the final report? >> i believe it is due to us very soon. california d.o.j. had internal work that they had to do and i believe that they are completing that right now. >> president walton: and do you have any updated data on complaints of discrimination and racial profiling.

that's something we definitely would love to have forwarded over. >> yeah. i believe our 96 day report is due next month and so you'll see that data in there and we also can certainly send over anything that you'd like to see. >> president walton: you also mentioned that it was 245 that were -- 245 recommendations deemed substantially compliant. thank you for the work. 79 are in general review which require different strategies, but are you still going to report similarly the sustainability even for the 79 that are in general review? >> acting captain, do you want to take this question? >> yes, president walton, we are. and those will be documented in

our quarterly and biannual reviews between the executive director and myself and the annual report. although we identify targeted that's a way for our unit in terms to really kind of focus on 166 to make sure we're doing exactly what we need to do because executive director mcgire suggests that we're always trying to improve and look for better ways to do this. and they'll be times where we'll get documentation for recommendation and use of force that has a direct in the accountability objective and it strengthens that file and it strengthens our response. like i said, the five recommendations i wrote down into monthly reviews we're

working on use of force and we'll continue to do that throughout the year. and then a final report to the chief of police for review. >> president walton: and i did hear in your statements about the 27 outstanding and discussion in terms of what's needed in technology and other supports, but i didn't hear the plan for coming into compliance for recommendations. >> so i'm happy to go into detail here because i have it all in my head here. so, for instance, i'll give you an example. so for technology, there were recommendations surrounding arrests and ensuring that we had good documentation on arrests. now, we have documentation on arrests and we track it in our current data warehouse systems,

however, there is some collaboration and coordination that we need to have with the sheriff's department and really our system is not structured in a way to really track every individual person who might be arrested. so you might have five arrests. those five arrests are all tracked in the incident, but not at a person level detail. so our system isn't structured that way. we need to restructure it and since we're in this position now where we need to become national incident based reporting compliant, that also requires us to, you know, the straw on the cammal's back was really that we needed to get a records management system. so that's one example, those three recommendations will be satisfied, but also a number of

recommendations would be supported by an r.m.s. being in place along with reporting and being able to be a little more transparent about what the work is we're doing and who we're arresting, who we're engaging with, all those things, all in one integrated system will be immensely helpful. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president walton. while we are on the findings in general, are you folks at the p.d. familiar with the audit released last month by the department of police accountability with regard to improvement and practices related to first amendment activities? >> i'm familiar with the work they were doing, i have not had

a chance to really dig into that i believe that we are happy to try to take some of these questions, but i think this will be a followup item. >> supervisor peskin: okay. before this becomes a future d.o.j. recommendation and in so far as department general order 810 has not been updated since the late 1990s, 1999 to be exact according to this audit and in the face of the fact that the police department has refused to comply with the use policy relative to surveillance policy that these board of supervisors overwhelmingly passed, i wanted to set forth this report that actually says that the changes in technology weren't that the police commission and the police commission revisit that general

order and actually speak to the rise of internet connected surveillance video cameras and what best practices are which look similar to the law this board of supervisors passed a few years ago but thatted the p.d. has thus far refused to comply with and is now seeking exemption at the ballot and it says other jurisdictions explicitly addressed these technologies in their policies ranging from chicago to the metro poll tan police department and the district of columbia. so you might want to look at them before they become future d.o.j. submissions. >> i was going to say we are actively working with e.p.a. on that audit. we're working on the

recommendations and we're also -- we will be working with d.p.a. in partnership on developing and addressing the update to 8.1. >> supervisor peskin: yeah but not to put a point too fine on it and have been passed by several dozen municipalities in the state of california and other state, the san francisco police department is an outlier in its unwillingness to comply is is now seeking through an ordinance to not comply. it's been flied with by the sfmta and 30 plus departments. so i'm cajoling you to consider complying with that because i believe that is the best practice and i believe that d.p.a.'s audit sets that forth. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor peskin.

supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, president walton. i'm so sorry and there was a comment that we just made earlier really about tracking arrests and the inability for the sfpd to track every single arrest. so or maybe i misunderstood that the statement, you know, relevant to how we provide data or the lack of ability to present data at this hearing. i just want some clarification of the comments of not being able to track every single arrest. could you clarify that? i think it's critical for me to understand knowing that an arrest it's an individual and would be critical to understand if we're not able to track it why not and just want some clarification, maybe i misunderstood the statement.

>> no. you didn't misunderstand. i said it that way, but to be clear, we're able to count number of arrests. we're able to go in and understand how many people we arrested in a particular incident. where it gets a little harder is if we have one incident and five arrests, one person might be arrested for the most severe crime and two might be arrested for a less severe crime and two more might be arrested, cited, and released. so we would count that as five arrests, but we couldn't tell you the detail of each of those five arrests in an auto mated way. so when you all request information from us, we often are having, we often have to go in and do a little bit of a hand count. so that's the kind of issue we

have in our data structure. now, the lie really goes back to the uniform crime reporting process and how we submit our reports to the federal and state government and that our system was designed in order to be able to report those and in the way they wanted it which is summary reporting. so the highest -- the most severe crimes and the most -- and by incident, not by arrests. so and then arrests were handled in a separate reporting function that was owned by the sheriff's department. >> supervisor chan: okay. so i guess my followup is let me try to understand, you know, a little bit more about how this is being tracked. for example, like what you just

said, one is more severe. say, i don't know, a case where everybody was arrested for different charges i think is what you're saying related to same incident, but each individual would have names and that just saying, you know, individual a, individual b, c, and d, they are arrested for these charges and when you can tell the number of arrests, but i would assume that you can then also break it down to a category of in the year of this year, you have, you know, sexual assault arrests and then there is a number of sexual assault arrests and, you know, it may be different individual for two different arrests. but you would -- is that what you're saying that's why it's

difficult to track? i'm just trying to understand. i'm so sorry. it's not clear to me, it's just alarming. >> yeah, it is and it's one of the reasons that we really do need a new records management system. now, just to be clear, the data exists in our system. so we have the name of the individual. we have what they were arrested for. we have the information. we don't have the ability to pull it out of our system in a routine way. so meaning we can't go and kwiry so and so to find out how many sexual assaults they had. we can query incidents or sexual assaults and then look at suspects, but beyond that, it's just a cumbersome clunky system that we need to update.

>> supervisor chan: understood. then could you actually explain to me what is a wrap sheet. >> i would defer to captain altofer on that or really the sheriff's department or probation. >> supervisor chan: wait. so what you're saying is that san francisco police department does not is not in custody or have access to wrap sheets or please walk us through what is a wrap sheet. >> i would have get back to you on that specifically. acting captain, would i like to address this or is this more appropriate for one of our criminal justice persons. >> supervisor chan: i would assume law enforcement knows what a wrap sheet is. so i'll look to you to help us and walk us through what a wrap sheet is. >> so with the wrap sheet, i can only speak to what i can view in the san francisco police department. in terms of when i identify an

individual that there's probably cause, reasonable suspicion, we can query their name in our system, we can do that from our cellular phones, we can do that by contacting the department management. and what will happen typically is we -- an individual's been arrested in the city and county of san francisco they're assigned an arrest number. what i can do in terms of my investigation is use that specific identifier, that sf number and then what that will do is that will generate a complete arrest history within the city and county of san francisco that will provide us the type of crime and location and if there are any other associates and provide us with court numbers which we can also query to see the disposition of the court case and that's what i would identify as a wrap sheet in san francisco.

now, there are other forms of ascertaining criminal history from the federal and the state level, but i wouldn't be the subject matter expert to talk about the state of defense identifier collector information. >> supervisor chan: understood. for example, but you do have an ability to access information even individual has a warrant from, you know, another county or even another state. wouldn't it in your ability to be able to actually have that information as well? >> yeah. absolutely. but that wouldn't necessarily be identified in a wrap sheet. a wrap sheet is previous arrest history. so if we in turn individual has an outstanding warrant for their arrest and it's in the california law enforcement database and we conduct a query, either we can obtain those results from the technology that we have for dispatcher communications will identify that the individual is

wanted and specifically wanted out of county, they'll identify what county and whether that warrant is expedited. >> supervisor chan: understood. so if the challenge is facing tracking that individual for arrest. help me understand, i along with my constituents are always trying to figure out within this criminal justice system assuming, we always assume that, you know, when the law enforcement especially the police department make an arrest, then it's just like turn it over and the d.a. is supposed to make the charge and someone's got to be held accountable and so if you have challenge to track to track the arrest for individuals -- i guess i'm trying to make a

linkage if you're having challenges tracking arrest of individuals and produce that data, how do you then communicate that information to a district attorney's office at the time of arrest to make sure that, you know, especially often times we hear the rhetoric around repeat offenders are not being held accountable and then they're just, you know, being released and so to speak, but my assumption is if someone has a clear arrest history that is being presented to the district attorney's office at the time of arrest and turned over, perhaps that it's helpful, but what you're saying is you have limited data at the time of arrest of the individuals to track their arrest history. >> so i'll jump in here. operation alley what officers have available to them is

different from what we centrally are able to pool together. acting captain altofer and the other many foreign personnel in our department are able to query klutz and that's a different system, different ability, different knowledge for investigation. so now that is very specific, very detailed. but with respect to what we need for reform work and what we need in order to build the trust and be transparent to the public is that replacement is our crime data warehouse. so to really keep us sort of transparent and open to the

public on the work that we're doing, that is where we need the technology support. >> supervisor chan: okay. i am just curious, this is all very interesting. thank you. thank you, president walton. >> and, supervisor, we're happy to have a conversation off line or in the future any time you would like to or not me perhaps someone else in the department. >> supervisor chan: thank you. thank you, both, i really appreciate it. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: thank you, president walton. i wanted to ask a question around the recommendations related reform recommendations related to bias specifically and just looking, i know our most recent update is that may 2021, but on the bias so i'm

looking at page eight of those recommendations under bias, it has 0 in progress as a total of 54 recommendations. i'm just wondering if you could walk me through on the bias recommendations specifically. just are they. you know, there's four columns there, it looks like none are in progress, but only 25 are substantially completed. if you can just explain for me what that external evaluation collum is and whether those have been completed since this last report in may. >> okay. supervisor preston. i'm not sure which document you're looking at, but i can tell you that as of today, the bias recommendations stand at 47 in substantially compliant and 7 are in progress. >> supervisor preston: sorry.

seven are in progress? >> correct. those are the recommendations that we will be working on with cal d.o.j. and hillard heinz in the coming years. >> supervisor preston: okay. i'm a little confused. so the document i'm looking at was the may 2021 called ''collaborative reform initiative may 2021 update'' >> yeah. >> supervisor preston: that's part of the presentation packet here and on page eight -- what i'm confused -- that has 0 in progress. now i'm hearing there are seven in progress. >> supervisor preston: so wrong direction. i don't understand that. >> so we had -- so the recommendations that are in progress are recommendations, there's a good number of them that really are as we work towards our deadline, we did

submit some that cal d.o.j. and hillard heinz felt needed more work and so we'll be continuing that work in this last phase. >> supervisor preston: okay. thank you. so it sounds like i have 54 bias related reforms you're saying 47 of them have been substantially completed. >> that's correct. >> supervisor preston: yeah and so i'm trying to square that with our ongoing severe racial disparities in stops and searches and use of force. so can you address that? i mean, it seems like we have almost all of these substantially completed very few that are in progress and yet at least the latest department stats it shows some minimal improvements, right. but overall still show severe

racial disparities in stop, searches, and use of force. so what do we make of that? how do we reconcile the implementation of reforms particularly those related to bias with what the numbers are showing about the ongoing race related discrepancies? >> yeah. i mean, i don't believe that the u.s. d.o.j. suggests that these specific recommendations will solve all of our problems. we're continuing this work. this is all part of the continuous improvement process and the sustainability fortunes that we've implemented or are implementing. we will be watching these data and ensuring that we are monitoring outliers, trends, information that helps us get to a point where we can

identify exactly where the cause is of the disparities and address them. so, you know, we can talk at lengths about it, but we've got many approaches that we're taking and we'll continue to improve upon in order to bring down those disparities. >> supervisor preston: thank you. and when it comes to the message for the public, given the existing disparities, like, can you address like how you calibrate the message to the public on where we are? i will just tell you i'm truck by what we get every day from the material from the media relations unit of the police department with often very helpful updates on different developments and, you know, they close at the bottom of the statement about the mrpdz that

i understand that any agency wants to do some self-promotion, but one would read it and think we have led the nation and solved all our problems as a department and then i look at the bias data and i'm just wondering and i appreciate your being forthright that we're watching the data on some of these things and there's no necessarily one thing that immediately changes all aspects of bias and policing, but i just -- i struggle with understanding the department wants to sort of put a best foot forward, but also recognizing the reality of the ongoing bias reflected in the data and the disconnect from the public statements that don't, you know, we don't get public statements that say, you know, we continue to have severe bias in this way. we're working on reforms. it's nothing like that it's just a glowing police reform

has worked and so how do you balance that? you know, what's the approach as you're trying to achieve these reforms and what message goes out with every communication from the department? >> thank you for the question, supervisor preston. it allows us the opportunity to kind of plug our website. we do, you know, in the interest of transparency, we certainly provide all of our disparities data and we report to the commission on a quarterly basis where our disparities data sits and also talk about the solutions that we are undertaking in order to try to address those. so, we are -- we're balanced, we try to be balanced in our

public facing information that we provide and that is the way that we do that for the disparities piece. it's commission meetings and talking about the data, talking about how we address it and how we're trying to address disparities and providing the information on our website and to the public generally for them to look at and assess for themselves how we're doing. >> supervisor preston: okay. i'll wrap up. it's more of a comment along these lines. i just would urge a more balanced presentation in some of the communications that come out. i think it just doesn't land well if the department's serious about the reforms and about the data that's coming out to have none of that acknowledged other than the positive in all the media. we've got the last dad, but we're looking still unless

something's changed very recently, african american people are being stopped at five times the rate of their white counter parts. latinx being stopped at twice the rates of white people african americans almost ten times to be searched. the use of force data, i won't go through it. but it's a pretty dramatic disparity. and latinx folks over four times as likely to be killed by police as compared to white folks. so, i'm not suggesting there are easy answers on all these, but i'm just seeing with that reality in the data, i would urge some effort to maybe conform some of the public statements, the media work and all that and point in time

descriptions of the department to acknowledge some of those disparities and address them. thank you, mr. president. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor preston. and, you know, as there are conversations about plans to increase police presence and plans to try to increase opportunities for different types of surveillance, i just want people to remember to biases that continue to exist. there's no denying that the department has done a good job of addressing a lot of the recommendations, but the ones that still exist around bias and what the data demonstrates and what we can see is still actually happening, i just want us to be mindful of that as we make these decisions over the next couple of weeks because the compliance in terms of biases are of major importance as we look at all the

recommendations. with that said, i don't see anybody else on the roster to speak. madam clerk, can we call for public comment specifically to this item? >> clerk: yes. the board of supervisors welcomes testimony specific to updates on the department of justice recommendations and reforms within the police department. the telephone number is streaming on your screen using a touch phone. dial 1 (415) 655-0001. and when you hear the prompt enter the meeting id 24884621722 press pound twice and you'll have joined the meeting as a listener. you'll hear the discussion, your line will be muted. once ready to get in the queue to provide testimony, press star three and when it is your turn listen carefully for the prompt you have been unmuted and begin speaking your comments. as stated earlier from the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs, we have three interpreters who are here today. they know to jump in and assist

speakers in language. i invite each interpreter to introduce themselves and language and provide the access to this remote meeting. welcome interpreters. >> translator: [speaking spanish] thank you.

>> translator: [speaking spanish] . >> translator: [speaking chinese].

>> clerk: and thank you. we appreciate all three of you for being present today and we are mindful that you'll have to log off at 7:00 p.m. operations, let's welcome our first caller. this is not general public comment, but we are taking testimony regarding the implementation of the department of justice's recommendations and reforms within the police department. welcome caller. >> caller: hello, my name is kit hodge. i live in district 7 and i'm a core team member of wealth and disparities in the black community. i'm here to echo supervisor preston's comments. any comments that sfpd is making and the traffic stops aas bad or in some cases worse

now since sfpd first started reporting in 2016. based on sfpd's own data, a black san francisco is is more subject to use of force than a white san franciscan. a black san franciscan is eleven times more likely to be arrested than a white san franciscan. this measure has not changed over time. a black san franciscan is six times more likely to be arrested than a white san franciscan. the likelihood of a black san franciscan being stopped compared to a white san franciscan was half in 2016 than what it is now. we demand the racial disparity in stops, arrests, and use of forces immediately. because of sfpd's ongoing and racist traffic stops, we demand the cessation or automatic

traffic stops to minor matters. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have approximately eight listeners and there are three callers in the queue. operations, let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: my name is susan buckman and i'm with the corps team of wealth and disparity. the statistics of race and policing have particularly in terms in use of force and racial profiling to traffic stops. it's bad or in some cases worse now that sfpd first started reporting in 2016. black san franciscans make up 5% of the population. based on sfpd's own data, a black san franciscan is 18 more times to be subject to use of

force than a white san franciscan. anti-black disparity in use of force is now in the most -- is worse now in the most recently reported quarter than in all other quarters going back to 2019. a black san franciscan is eleven times more likely to be arrested than a white san francisco can. this horrific level on anti-black disparity. based on the data so far reported for 2021 this is actually twice as bad as it was in 2016. sfpd targeted black drivers and stops of black people are often escalated into a wrongful arrest, use of force and even death. because of sfpd's ongoing and

racist traffic stops, we demand such as turn signal, traffic lights, etc. san francisco has been working on this for six years and there has been no measurable improvements. sfpd keeps -- >> clerk: thank you for your comments. please accept our apologies for any interrupting anyone's comments. we are setting the timer for two minutes this afternoon. let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: hi, my name is victoria roden and i'm a team member in the black community. i'm calling in regard that sfpd suggests it's making particularly in terms of use of

force, arrests and racial profiling of traffic stops since sfpd first started reporting by race in 2016. based on the department's own data, a black san franciscan is more subject to use of force than a white san franciscan. the anti-black disparity for a black san franciscan is worse now in the most recently reported quarter in september 30th, 2021, than all other quarters going back to 2014. this measure has not changed overtime. in fact, going back to 2016, this level of anti-black disparity and arrest has remained at relatively the same level. . a black san franciscan is statistically more to be

stopped. the likelihood of a black san franciscan compared to a white san franciscan in 2016 than what it is now. we demand the further reduction and elimination of use of force and because of sfpd's ongoing anti-black racism, we demand the cessation of traffic stops for minor matters. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. operations, let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: good afternoon supervisors. i call with the other callers to note that as sfpd itself has emphasized, these reforms haven't worked. they've stated clearly they need reform they were destructive to our community. they perpetuated racism.

they are a modern form of slave catchers you've heard it from everywhere. now here's what we haven't heard. any piece of reform or evidence that they're going to do anything whatsoever to correct this issue, they have every intention to continue to be the brutal and thuggish police state that we pay them to be. we import the racists and they use their time off to fly to january 6th and have an insurrection in our capital. we pay the racists to come to our society and we brutalize our minorities. they hospitalize our homeless people. they beat our constituents. is it not positive contributing members of society and these reforms as they themselves

emphasize haven't worked. it's time to try a less destructive and violent solution. we should end the war on drugs to make our society and our city safer. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. >> clerk: all right. we have nine listeners in the queue and let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: last weekend, there was information for the public painfully on display on mission street as two incredibly small females of color were detained for what seemed an unreasonably long time and lacking in basic compassion by a group of primarily caucasian police officers. one caucasian female paramedic and two caucasian male

paramedics. the females had the right to decline an expensive ambulance ride but were treated with what seemed like some distim kaine for that choice and it was referred to as refusing treatment. one of the women had been tasered by a walgreens security employee who was so much larger. he did not need to chase her. she had stolen nothing. as a woman of color, i believe that she was not given the appropriate respect and kindness i believe someone should have brought her a blanket, should have asked her how she felt. should have commented with kindness about her child. [please stand by]

>> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> supervisor wilson. >> aye. >> supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye.

>> and supervisor safai. >> aye. >> thank you very much. the motion to continue this hearing to our march 22 board of supervisors meeting passes unanimously. and colleagues, we'll come back to item 25 as we need to approve item 31 first and we are now at [roll call] for introductions. >> supervisor stefani, you're first up to introduce new business. >> >> thank you, madame clerk. >> sorry. that came up quick. today i'm introducing two resolutions in support of gun violence prevention laws ab452 and ab1594. you all know gun violence is a national crisis at the national and local level.

almost 40,000 lives are lost to gun violence every year and it's the leading cause of death for children and teens in the united states. on average every year in the united states nearly 350 children ages 17 and under gain access to a firearm and unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else and every year there's deaths by firearms. our communities have seen a dramatic increase in gun violence within the past year a 36% increase in total gun violence victims last year compared to 2020. ab452 would require a school district, county office of education and charter school to inform parents and guardians at the beginning of each semester or quarter and through any new enrollment or transfer of

california's laws. most evidence suggestion the secure firearms storage is essential to keep schools and students safe. research shows secure firearms storage practices are associated with up to an 85% reduction in in intended violence and the schools are to send home storage information and urge the san francisco board of education to share safe storage information at the beginning or quarter of the regular school term and any new enrollment or transfer even if ab452 fails. i want to thank the co-leads for

the local chapter of students demand action and brought a similar resolution which passed unanimously. in addition to ab452, i'm introducing a resolution to support ab1594. i would hold the gun industry accountable if they're failure to follow, federal, state or local law caused injury or death. almost every industry in the united states can be held liable when their products cause harm our the gun industry is not held to the same standard. the lawful commerce and arms act shields gun producers and dealers from civil liability when i a product is used to commit crimes or when the companies break laws and ab1594 would be held accountable and this empowers locals and

residents to sue those for the marketing of weapons that endanger the health and safety of others the threat of civil litigation is to prevent an illegal sales and theft to reduce gun violence. as we all know, we cannot wait for the federal government to take action. to thank assembly members gibson and ward and te for the issue. and i'm sending a drafting request to the city attorney to require every household to have insurance and pay a fee. that's in the news with what's happening in san josé and requiring liability insurance will allow us to compensate unintentional shooting victims from medical and other expenses.

imposing a modest fee can support suicide prevention programs and gun safety classes and mental health services. as i said earlier gun violence is a national crisis and will not go into the statistics we all know but on average every year nearly 700 children die by suicide, firearms and there's something more we can be doing for those that possess weapons but end up in the hands of children. i want to thank san josé mayor for introducing in san josé. i know it's being considered today. the first of its kind in the nation and estimates the cost was nearly $40 million. using that same methodology the dost san francisco could be higher than $80 million. the cost don't begin to cover the human cost and endless

tragedy gun violence creates in our country. everyone else is subsidizing their harmful activities when they cause harm. i know this measure alone won't end all gun violence but liability insurance like this has had a tremendous positive impact in other areas where unintentional death are common. my hope is measures like this with other laws like the restraining orders, banning those guns and requiring safe storage will save lives and again i want to thank san josé mayor for leading the way on this important initiative. finally, colleagues, i want to alert everyone if you haven't heard already about the disturbing reports from residents in pacific heights. over the weekend found anti-semitic flyers on the door steps and cars.

it's my information similar flyering took place in miami and los angeles and according to an audit of anti-semitic indents in the united states they accounted an increase of 12% of harassment and assault and the highest level since tracking began in 1979. the flyers left residents feeling terrified and vulnerable in the wake of what happened at the synagogue in texas earlier this month. as i said, i want to be very clear, this kind of anti-semitic hatreds into place in our city and must stand against it whenever and wherever it occurs. i've been in touch with the san francisco police department and been in touch with the fbi and

hoping the suspects are apprehended and i intend to see these individuals are held accountable and the rest i submit. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor stefani. supervisor walton. >> thank you, madame clerk. i'm hap dree introduce legislation codifying our shelter grievance policy. this provides a dispute resolution process for homeless shelter clients accused of violating shelter rules. it consists of a two-stage appeals process that results in an agreement between the shelter and client. fixing the if underlying likelihood of repeat rule violation. it's been a part of our shelter system for three decades but while it's been incredibly successful since its inception in 1992, the policy itself has never been codified in municipal

code. our goal with this legislation is twofold. one, to codify an already excellent policy and two, to make sure and make the following clear to our unhoused residents. you do not share your right to due process at the shelter door. i'd like to thank the department of homelessness and supportive housing, the coalition on homelessness and the advocates at the eviction defense collaborative and the members of the shelter grievance advisory committee and countless homeless service providers and shelters. all of have you been with us on this from the start of creating this legislation helping to make sure we got this right. i also want to thank my legislative aide for drafting this legislation and working with our city agencies as well as our deputy city attorney for helping draft the legislation. i also want to thank my

colleagues, supervisors preston and melgar and roney on the legislation. make sure our residents have the right to a fair and speedy appeals process creates accountability and increases the quality of our shelter system. lastly the racial justice for all act. the existing california racial justice act established in 2020 prohibit the state from seeking or abstaining a criminal conviction or frommism -- from i am posing a sentence based on

nationality or bias. including judgments rendered prior to january 1, 2021. this bill ab256 extends the common sense and overdue protection to those who have already been impact unfair convictions and sentences, providing for phased in retro activity will give the individuals an equal opportunity to pursue justice. the bill also makes technical corrections to the act. the rest i submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor chan. submit. thank you. supervisor haney. submit, thank you. supervisor mandelman. >> i'm requesting a couple hearings and have a resolution

and an ordinance. first the hearings. two of them. the first hearing will focus on the recently released budget and analysis report on the use and effectiveness of conservatorship. some may request a requested a report released in 2019. among the noteworthy finding the number of referrals to lps conservatorship had changed and the case load decreased. the report cited a lack of appropriate beds. that is acute in-patient and subacute beds as one reason for the define in referrals and

conservatorship caseloads though when those exhibiting behavioral health challenges were going up to anyone paying attention. the 2019bla report identified policy sources that shift services from residential to community-based programs and staffing issues in the public conservatorship staffing as other factors and wait times for the san francisco healing center averaged almost 20 days and for other subacute treatment facilities then averaged 51 days. the bottom line was we needed to scale up the number of psych beds available to san francisco residents. this was not a particularly surprising conclusion at the time. the need for more mental health beds was not new news but important news. that analysis was reconfirmed by a 2020 beds language and by the appropriations of hundreds of millions of dollars for new

mental health beds the mayor and this board made offer the last three years. after the talk about beds i expect we'd be in a different position now in 2022 then back in 2019. and this shows we are not. to the contrary, it appears san francisco has made little progress on lost mental health beds and treading water with key indicators moving in the wrong direction. according to the bla record the number of subacute mental health beds available for san franciscans increased by two beds between 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 that's from 278 in 2018-19 up to 287 in 2019-20 and back down to 280 in 2020-21. to be fair, there was the

pandemic and they're now predicting an increase in bed but nothing about my experience suggests dph is moving at near the pace and intensity the need demands on subacute beds. assuming the department needs 31 beds before the end of the fiscal beds we'll still have less than 2013 and they consequences of that failure are awful. the most recent data provide the department of public health indicates average wait times increased from just under 20 days, remember that was the last blah report, to 111 now. an average wait times for other facilities increased from 51 days, back then, to 103 now. i think it's time took more about it. here at the board of supervisors in the hope we can figure out way to stop the talking and get

the beds bought or built, staffed and operated and get care to so many san franciscans to need it. the second is to request an update on the status of the conservatorship program under senate bill 1045 and 40. i requested an early update on the program's implementation in january 2020. back then i was concerned many months after the adoption no one had been using the new tool. the pandemic of course intervened here as well and we didn't end up pursuing the hearing until june 25, when we learned the city still a year later hadn't filed a single 1045 conservatorship petition. i continued that hearing to july 23 and then september 24 and then december 20 then january

11. at each time we learned progress was being made but no petition filed. finally on march 11, 2021 i decided to finally file the hearings. as we approach the three year anniversary of sb1045, i think it's time for the board for the board to check in on thoughts and failures and lessons learn and my understanding is two folks have been con served using the program. the rollout of the program has anemic embarrassing numbers but less concerning to me if it was clear dph and the office public

conservator was working on it and hope we can finally and urgently move beyond the talk. i want to thank jackie thornhill in my office helping me think about this and staffing me on the conversations moving forward. next up monster hopes. i addressed locations like delores heights and others and there's relatively affordable homes being converted into four and five or 6,000 square feet luxury single family mansions. these conversions we continue to see in district 8 on a near

weekly basis erodes the housing stock without adding new housing and exacerbates the housing crisis. i'm introducing due to feedback from neighborhood advocates and architects and developers. the ordinance i'm introducing provides a more scaled back and simplified approach and same overarching goal to make it harder to convert an existing single-family to a more expensive one and encouraging more accessible homes and create a large residence district that includes glen mark and twin peaks and eureka valley and others. it would apply to new construction in rh zoning district that submit an application after january 1 of

this year except the area already covered by the corona heights large residence. a conditional use would be required for anything that is more than 3,000 square feet including garage and f.a.r. for example, on a 2,000 square feet a c.u. would be triggered if anything is larger than 2400 square feet and that said it would prohibit approval of any single unit exceeding 4,000 square feet and there's exceptions for a specific hardship and a decrease in square feet would still allow for the ability to add a kitchen or bedroom. i want to thank the planning

commission and the district 8 leaders for helping shape this ordinance and thank deputy city attorney and my office and i look forward to discussing this with you and hope we can enact it very soon. and finally, colleagues, i'm introducing a resolution urging the state of california to reform its cannabis cultivation tax. last year the board of supervisors voted to suspend the tax for, the second consecutive year in this action and i asked for this the last two years in response to concerns the imposition of a new local tax on state taxes would further fuel the illicit market. proposition 64 passed by voters in 2016 and legalized adult use cannabis established two state cannabis taxes.

first a 15% excise tax on retail sales and second, a cultivation tax on all harvested cannabis at 10.80 per ounce for flowers an 8 cents for trim. the legal market is experiencing a price collapse in large part due to the inability to compete with the illicit market. the price has fallen the tax rate for dry flower is 51% of gross receipts and for dry leaves and trim is equivalent to 153% of gross receipts. the california legislature did not eliminate the cultivation tax and governor newsom dblt -- ed his support. this will put san francisco on record with other jurisdictions including alameda, mendocino and

others and suspend the state cultivation tax and establish a regulatory system that does not impose barriers. i want to thank supervisor haney for his co-sponsorship and tom temprano for his work on the resolution and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor mandelman. supervisor mar. >> colleagues, i have a hearing equity and in memoriam today. first, i'm introducing a hearing request on the emergency fire fighting water system 2050 planning study just disseminated to the board and the public several weeks ago by the sfpuc. it's one of the key long-term planning bench marks called for in the resolution adopted october 2019 declaring a state of urgency to expand the fire

fighting water system by 2034 and ensure the safety of our west side and southern and south eased neighborhoods. i want to thank the sfpuc in coordination with the s.f. fire department and office of resilience and capital planning for their work and look forward to their presentation at the hearing and to our continued oversight as a board and public of this important emergency preparedness infrastructure project. and colleagues, i have an in memoriam and joined by city administrator carmen chu and ask we close in memory of ron gagero a life long san franciscan and baseball player and athletic leader and cheer coach and mentor to young people and a passional -- passionate advocate he passed at the age of 86. he grew up across from a

baseball field later named for his father and went to sacred heart high school where he was part of four champion teaches before attending u.c. berkeley before he captained the world series championship team and played with the cardinals minor league team and inducted in the athletics hall of fame in 1983 and the san francisco prep hall of fame in 2001. ron returned home to san francisco after his career and began a long career as a teacher at marina middle school where he coached for 38 year and won city championships in baseball, basketball, track, volleyball and touching the lives of generations of students. in 1999, the marina middle school was renamed the ron

gojero gym and his inspiration and support brought out the best in students. a caring friend to many neighbors, he was an honest, caring, upstanding san franciscan who will be missed. in retirement ron regularly corresponded with city leaders and was a steady constituent correspondent end and like others on the board for the last three years i've received dozens of e-mails from ron sharing his perspectives on a wide range of important neighborhood and city wide issues including just this last fall a powerful appeal to not favor profit eering and with

ron no matter how a part we may be on something he would always sign off with regards and i knew it was sincere. we agreed on the passionate but civil discourse is what democracy looks like. ron was a third-generation san franciscan who moved into his home on 33rd avenue in 1967 and passed away in that home with his family by his side. he was a devoted husband of jacqueline and loving father to to his children. he cared deeply about our city and the sunset. i'm grateful to have felt that affection the last three years. rest in peace. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor mar.

supervisor melgar. >> submit. >> thank you. supervisor peskin. >> i have already submitted. >> thank you. >> supervisor preston. >> thank you, madame clerk. colleagues, together with the mayor i'm proud to sponsor legislation to move forward 100% affordable housing in my direct. the resolution authorizes a ground lease to create a 100% affordable 63-unit multi-family rental housing development affordable to low-income households including 32 units for transitional aged youth. this is one piece of a long promise of affordable housing for the hayes family neighborhood as a result of moving the freeway a number of parcels were transferred from cal trans to the city including

the property at 78 haight street. with the legislation introduced today we're taking an important step towards realizing the community vision for affordable housing on the city-owned parcel s we continue to push for 100% affordable housing and the work on this effort and continue to look to our partnership for affordable housing in hayes valley and my district. next, colleagues, and in memoriam for glen foster. glen is a tenant rights advocate and long time district 5 resident. glen faster passed away october 25, 2021 at the age of 58. he is survived by his parents,

donald and katherine foster, his siblings, tommy, dj and kate and his partner of over 25 years, brian burger. glen foster was born on november 12, 1962 in queens new york. he graduate from perl river high school in 1980. for two decades after high school he traveled across the country for denny's leading their diversity program until they phased out the program in the early 2000s and in 2009 he graduate from city college of san francisco's nursing program. as a registered nurse, glen worked at san francisco general hospital in the hiv-aids patient and when moving a patient he

tore his meniscus and moved tie family health clinic. he was always there to help people with their problems and have their backs 100%. glen understood what it was like to struggle harder than others to get through the day. he also knew how easy it was for people to get lost in the system. glen understood a person's physical and mental health were precariously tied to their living situation and the connection between housing and health impacted people deeply. glen went to battle always for the most powerless. he was a tireless activist and they formed a union to stand up and traveled with housing

organizers to the state capital to fight for tenants in the face of predatory real estate lobby and led direction action again the ceo of veritas and i worked with people forming tenant associations and unions here in san francisco for decade and the cornerstone of that work and the building block on why the rest of the tenant movement is build are individual tenants are those who stand united with their neighbors against their odds to take on the power of the landlord. it is difficult and under recognized work and it matters. glen's work changed lives and inspired others. glen lived in hayes valley in district 5 for almost 20 years. it was in this home he created a support network for his neighbors.

his partner, brian, shared in the lead up to an organizing meeting in their home, he would find glen baking cookies and setting up a deli spread among large charts and graphs of all his research. caring for people came naturally to glen. one of the people that organized closely with glen, a member of the veritas housing organization said after glen's passing, quote, i'm so proud to have known glen as a fellow vta member, as a volunteer with hrc and as a deer dear friend in his city. the first time i met him he was airing an s.f. giants t-shirt and since i'm also a big giants fan we connected right away and became friends and soon bonded in our struggle for stable and

secure housing. glen was serious about keeping people housed. and because he had health issues, he knew that housing was an essential part of health care. we were fighting for the same san francisco cause, rooting for the same san francisco team and a will always remember him. rest in peace and power, glen and thank you for the comments. i wants to extend my condolences for glen's family and friends and neighbors and all he fought for. rest in power, glen foster. thank you, madame clerk and the rest i submit. >> colleagues, today i am requesting a budget and analyst report that looks into how many calls for services san francisco police department received each

year both prior to and after the increase and creation of the ninth street teams we have operating in the city today. the ninth street teams we have are the homeless outreach team and the street crisis team and the department of public health comprehensive crisis service team, the street overdose response team and the street medicine team, engagement specialist team and the street wellness team and the emergency

medical service, ems 6 team. we also funded a test team in last year's budget which is the community-led compassionate alternative response team otherwise known as cart. despite the fact nine of these 10 teams are in the streets working every day with individuals in distress, the police have told me their calls for servics especially the bnc calls have not declined. i want to understand why. if we're spending millions to millions on street teams out 24/7 and trying to enact a a

different way to interact with people on the streets why aren't numbers going down and this year given the mayor just introduced a budget supplemental for additional funding for the police, i need to understand what is going not as planned and are we wasting money here? what's going terribly wrong? hoping to have the report soon and help us in our analysis of how we're spending money and we should continue to spend money when money comes to dealing with people in the streets. second, i wanted to aannounce in collaboration with mayor breed, we've allocated an additional $5.4 million to extend the right to recover program through the

end of june 2022. the mayor still has under her emergency powers the ability to designate and move money from reserve into this purpose and did so and i'm grateful for that. you'll all remember i created this program with the latino task force on covid-19 in the early months of the pandemic to address the needs of our most vulnerable workers and allow them the peace of mind to safely quarantine if they were diagnosed with covid but had no sick time or savings. it has allowed over 7,000 low-income individuals and families to prioritize their own health and well being as well as the public by giving them the support. this has been a small bright light in the pandemic and grateful we're going to keep it going.

since may 2020 this program distributed $10.9 million to workers. many of which are speak lack -- languages other than english and live in the excelsior and other locations an over 50% of the money is spent on food and the other on utility and bills. many san franciscans would have likely faced financial ruin if not for right to recover. with the additional $5.4 million the city will continue to ensure a safety net for folks living paycheck to paycheck and estimate the additional funds will serve over 5,000 more san franciscans we have slightly modified the program to reflect new guidelines and now the program will distribute $1,000, roughly the equivalent of 10 days of work at the city's minimum wage instead of the

previous 14 days when we were distributing $1200. we need to stretch these dollars as omicron has hit us really hard. i just wanted to extend a few thank yous to the amazing program and for those in there are work administering the program saving me thousands of phone calls reaching out to the most vulnerable and make sure the resources were in their hands. i want to thank oewd for their diligent data tracking and consistently weekly reporting on the project to make sure we always have sufficient funds. a special thanks to mayor london breed and her office for supporting the program so strongly and finally to my

office who was there from day one when we thought of the program and has worked with all city partners to make sure it's alive and thriving. it's a little bit of good news for us during the grind of the covid crisis. colleagues, the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor safai. submit, mr. president, seeing no names that concludes the introduction of new business. >> thank you, very much, madame clerk. >> you'll be in live sync to provide your public comment throughout the meeting the telephone number is streaming on your screen, 1-415-655-0001, when you hear the prompt hit the meeting i.d., 2488 462 1722,

press pound twice and you'll know you joined as a listener when you hear the discussion and once in the queue for public comment, press star 3 and listen for the prompt, you have been unmute and begin speak your comment. during this item there are several things you are permitted to speak to such as the approval of the december 23, 2021 special board meeting minutes, the items on the latter section of the agenda, items 28 through 31. these items are before the board without referral to committee. matters not on the agenda today but that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board of supervisors is another area you may speak to. all other agenda content will have been reported out to the board by an appropriate committee where the public comment requirement was fulfilled. the board of supervisors will accept written correspondence.

or by using the e-mail address vof@sfgov.org. the interpreters are on stand by and ready to assist with interpretation. operations, let's welcome the first caller. welcome, caller.

>> there are no other callers in the queue. >> if you would like it provide public comment, press star 3. >> we haven't met. i'm the ghost of christmas past and i'm here to of the mess you made when you went away. you know the lyric, my bad. nonetheless the uncompromised lives of those you governed were excruciatingly haunted over the holidays by city hall. that xmas eve and daunte's inferno where you were freed to avoid congregate and mayoral

status as you hung stockings with care. your constituents not so much. you're tracking and others were nearly suicidal with grief. i pray the gravity of your hasty pudding, i mean decisions, may cover your every step with the countless in hiding shivered in 36 degrees and soaked in rain. i can't recall a worse christmas in s.f. and i suspect everybody's favorite halloween costume in 2022 will be mayor greed grinch who stole christmas, stole new year's and stole who knows what else during the pandemic when we all desperately needed a trace. [♪♪]

>> what's going on, what's going on, what's going on? [♪♪] >> mr. atkins, do we have any other callers in the queue, please? >> hi, this is rj sloan. madame clerk let me know if this is an appropriate topic to comment on. i spoke with regard to the right to recover fund, i spoke to dr. weber at s.f. d.p.h. and

apparently there's a three-week delay between the application for right to recover funds and the receipt of those funds. my concern is that because of such a long delay for people to really to quarantine, their landlord may initiate eviction proceedings during the time they're waiting for the right to recover funds. it's my hope if people -- once people are approved for the funds, there's perhaps a letter for their landlord so their land lord will indeed be receiving right to recover funds and make up any deficits. >> i'm going pause your time, sir. are you speaking about item on our agenda on the eviction protections ? >> i believe so and my apologies

if this isn't the appropriate time to speak on this. >> this is supervisor ronen. he was talking about right to recover. i think it was appropriate. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. if you're speaking about something completely different than an item on our agenda you have a minute and 6 seconds to continue. >> thank you, madame clerk. because of the delay between the application and approval for right to recover funds and receipt of such funds three weeks later according to dr. weber in d.p.h. i'm hoping there's a landlord letter so they while the applicant is waiting for funds. thank you so much, folks. thank you for your comment. >> we have another caller in the

queue, please. >> good evening, supervisors in honor of the mayor's proposal to further brutalize the tenderloin, tonight i am calling for changes. [♪♪]

>> thank you for your comments. are there any other callers in the queue. >> no other callers in the queue. >> thank you, mr. president. >> thank you mr. clerk and seeing no more public comment, public comment is now closed. madame clerk let's go to our for adoption items 38-41. >> a unanimous vote is required for adoption of resolutions today on first reading. alternatively a supervisor may require a resolution on first reading to go to committee. >> thank you very much.

colleagues, would you like to sever any items? supervisor peskin? >> item 28, please. >> item 28. >> thank you. supervisor safai. item 30. thank you. madame clerk, seeing no other members on the roster would you call roll. >> item supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen.

>> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. there are 11 ayes. >> thank you, without objection the resolution and motion is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 28. >> item 28 a motion to concur in actions taken by the mayor in the 42nd supplement to the proclamation of emergency to meet the ongoing local emergency related to the novel coronavirus, covid-19 pandemic. >> thank you. supervisor peskin. >> thank you, president walton and colleagues for your indulgence in continuing this matter for two weeks during the interim i have the opportunity to speak with our human resources director and while i am still not a big fan about the way this is written because of

the language including rather than limited to, i'm convinced she will use it appropriately and within the very constrained time frames during which this delegated authority to wave an otherwise provision of memorandum of standing with labor organizations representing fire department workers appropriately used and within the narrow time frames that i will vote for the matter at hand. >> thank you so much, supervisor peskin. madame clerk, please caught the roll. >> item 28, supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> supervisor walton. >> aye. >> supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar.

>> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> there are 11 ayes. without objection this motion is approved unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 30. >> item 30 a resolution to urge the mayor the department of public health and the office of economic and workforce development, the department of emergency management and the human services agency to immediately re-establish an interim covid command center to address the omicron surge. >> supervisor safai and walton and colleagues. this resolution was drafted on january 10 in response to the surge in the highly contagious omicron variant but seems to be

on the decline dramatically and i think we'll hear more about that in this meeting. each whereas in this resolution has nearly been addressed. we're happy the departments have responded and the mayor's office has responded according ly. this resolution was in response to the concerns our community members, stakeholders and city employees and first responders reached out to our office and many represented here in this chamber. for the latter part of december and new year we were in undated with calls complaining about the lack of response and support for covid that was happening and many of us saw that first hand on the ground in our community. i also received e-mails and called from first responders themselves many working in emergency rooms and skilled nursing facilities and front

lines. there's been great action taken in many areas. $5.4 million has been given in the right to recover to stabilize this fund. my district the highest number of individuals putting in requests for this fund. a disproportionately of service workers and people living in crowded housing. i want to thank supervisor ronen for her continued support and pressure in this area and the mayor for funding this and keeping this moving forward. second part i think is very important and something that supervisor mar has been working hard for over the last year is continued covid sick leave in the amount of 80 hours has been retroactively restored until march of 2022 for the city and county workers. we've reinstated our policy on continuity of payment for nonprofits experienced

disruption. [please stand by].

>> and other departments who have specifically been acting swiftly. in the title on page one and we have e-mailed this to your offices and we add established covid coordination team to address omicron variant spread and other possible surges online seven and eight strike the language that says re-establish a covid command center and add the language in that says establish a covid coordination team to address

the covid variant surge and other possible variant surges. and then in the last page, on page four, strike the language that says online four and five that says the third supplemental proclamation all the way to omicron surge and add language that says immediately establish a coordination team to address omicron surge and other possible surges and to require this team led by the department of public health required by the board every two months for the next six months. again, i want to thank the mayor's office and the departments for their quick responses and my colleagues for their action and reacting to what we've seen on the ground and staying on top of this and all of the departments, department of emergency management, public health, oewd and h.s.a. and others they can

react and respond and stay ahead of this surge as we move forward. >> president walton: thank you supervisor safai. you have a motion to amend. >> supervisor safai: yes, sir. >> president walton: seconded by supervisor preston. on the motion to amend item number 30. >> clerk: on the amendment of item 30, [roll call] there are eleven ayes. >> president walton: thank you, motion to amend passes

unanimously. on the amended resolution. >> clerk: on item as amended, roll really [roll call] there are eleven ayes. >> supervisor safai: thank you colleagues. >> president walton: thank you. and without objection, the amended resolution is adopted unanimously. all right. madam clerk, let's go back to item number 25. >> clerk: given the approval of item 31 item 25, the board of supervisors has agreed to convene as a committee as a whole for a public hearing to

consider the update to the city's response to address the omicron surge including increase testing capacity and to coordinate response across city departments. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. supervisor chan, did you have any opening statements? >> supervisor chan: thank you, president walton. and, colleagues, thank you so much for your support to allow us to have this committee as a whole. i really am coming from a place where i just want to be first really thankful for our department of public health for their effort for guiding us through the pandemic both as just the residents in san franciscans and now as the district one supervisor. today, my intent really is to learn about the latest really information about omicron, about covid, you know, two years now, i just really want to have a good grip and a good understanding not just from myself but really on behalf of my constituents.

i am learning conflicting information online and kind of everywhere. i really look to our department of public health for the guiding authority to tell us where they're heading and that's really to help us understand, you know, what are some of the testing frequency and conditions for different populations and my thought is there are seniors kids, unhoused individuals, travelers, just different people that, you know, how do we deal with these populations. also, just thinking about the latest vaccination rate and really where we're going, what is the future for us. i didn't think that i was going to ask about masking and protocols, but just kind of learning the information in the last couple of days including some of the information that

has been released by department of public health including today i think they were on kqv radio and talking about how the future of this pandemic is heading in the direction of endemic so i love to have this information and thank you, colleagues for your support for this committee as a whole hearing. >> president walton: thank you so much, supervisor chan. and this evening, we have dr. grant colfax and dr. navina baba from the department of public health to present. thank you so much for being here, dr. colfax. >> thank you, president walton. and good afternoon supervisors and thank you for your support and your shared wisdom during these last two years and as we enter our third year of the pandemic. and i'm also joined here today by the department our board liaison and our main school lead from the department of

public health as well as we'll be joined by our health officer and activation population health director dr. susan phillip. i do have a number of slides that i hope will answer some of your questions and, of course, we are available to continue the conversation and to continue to work towards addressing this unprecedented pandemic going into a third year. next slide. so in terms of our current state of covid, i really want us to focus for a few minutes on what we know. we know that omicron is far more infectious, but thankfully causes less severe disease than the delta variant. very importantly and i will say this multiple times during this presentation, vaccines are very effective in preventing severe

illness and death and just to provide the board with the latest data on this the cdc released startling data on friday that showed for people over 65 if they had received a booster, they were 49 times less likely to be hospitalized due to covid and for people between the ages of 50 and 64, they were 44 times less likely to be hospitalized for covid. and as a physician, i can tell you that rates of reduction as seen with these vaccines are rarely seen in medicine. so these continue to be the foundation, the vaccines and the boosters continue to be the foundation of our ability to mitigate the effects of covid. our robust efforts that save lives and help maintain hospital capacity and covid is here to stay. it has adapted to us and we need to adapt to it. and as we adapt to it, it's

important to emphasize that we all need to continue to show compassion and grace to those with covid-19. most of us have gotten our vaccines and boosters, most of us are doing the best we can and i think at this point, most of us know people who have become infected with covid-19. in terms of what is likely in the near future, surge in cases has peaked and will likely be followed by a peak in hospitalizations and a leveling off and we'll go into this a little bit later in the presentation and thankfully supplies and test kits and treatments should improve. both at the local, state, and federal level. in terms of our ongoing response and planning at the local, state, and federal level, it's clear we must be flexible and elastic to respond emphasizing that now and we are no longer in 2020, our goal is

not to prevent every case, but we need to continue to focus on equity and maintaining hospital capacity and preventing deaths. there's a shared responsibility going into the third year of the pandemic for all health care providers to provide access to vaccines and testing. that we as a society, as a city, as a health department must balance our covid response with multiple competing health issues including behavioral health and very importantly and i want to emphasize to take the lessons learned from covid and for the department to strengthen our community health partnerships to continue to address not only covid, but the other health issues where there are significant health inequities that covid is only further highlighted. next slide. so i did want to take a moment to show national state and county comparisons with regard to where san francisco stands in terms of deaths per 100,000

population and our population who've completed their initial vaccine series and just to point out here that compared to other comparable counties and cities in the united states, san francisco has the lowest deaths per 100,000 population at 80.7. we have tied for the highest percent of the population that has completed its initial series of the vaccine and then our booster rate compared to the state and the united states overall is far higher than the national or state average. and just going back from it in terms of deaths per 100,000, it has been estimated by u.c.s.f. that if the united states had the same death rate that san francisco had over 600,000 deaths would have been prevented nationwide. over 600,000 deaths would have been prevented nationwide.

next slide. in terms of cases, our cases have peaked. you can see on the left graph here our cases have started to peak, for those who have not been vaccinated and those shown in the orange and dotted blue line and you see that our cases peaked at over 200,000 and are now going down. and just to emphasize that this case rate was far higher than anything we had ever seen before including in 2021. in terms of deaths by months overtime. thankfully we are not in the winter of 2021 when we were just starting to roll out those vaccines as you see. on the death thankfully are not

anywhere near where they were in 2021. we will unfortunately still have some additional deaths because of delays due to reporting, but we do not expect the magnitude that we saw last winter. next slide. in terms of hospitalizations, this graph shows the total covid-19 patients in acute care and intensive care over time. you can see with that number of 271, we've exceeded the number that we saw in our winter surge. because of the boosters and because omicron is less than prior patients. and our hospitals have maintained capacity, so they are able to continue to care despite the fact we've had really major challenges in terms of staffing because so many of our incredible staff came down with covid and just to provide an example,

zuckerberg san francisco hospital at one point had over 500 staff out due to covid but because of the heroic effort of our front line workers, we were able to continue to maintain staffing ratios to provide optimal care not only for people with covid, but for people who came in with so many other health conditions. and our focus continues to be to ensure capacity throughout the hospital system. next slide. in terms of vaccinations we are using and children under five are currently not eligible. but we do expect for younger children that the pfizer

vaccine may be approved by spring of 2022. being up to date on vaccination is required for those that work in high-risk settings and we continue to have a robust network of nearly 100 vaccination sites in san francisco with nearly all san franciscans within a 5-10 minute walk or drive to a site. in terms of vaccines, 82% of residents have completed the initial series and you can see here, our booster rate is now at 63% with nearly half a million residents having received a booster vaccine. in terms of testing, we had a huge surge in testing demand with the surge in cases just to highlight on the graph here on

the blue graph, we were down to about 3,400 tests to date in late october, early november. and you can see we peaked here at 44,688 in tests and earlier this month. so we peaked at about 14,500 tests. testing at our d.p.h. affiliate sites are at an all-time high. i can say we are now able to provide testing to people. there are appointments available and there are drop-in appointments available as well and our turn-around time which i know has been a real challenge for many of us and our families. that number has come down and our average turn around time is 1.4 days and continues to drop. getting those rapid test kits was so key during the surge we were ordering those home test kits when we saw what was coming. unfortunately, as you know at

the international national and state level there was not a supply of test kits to be had, but as soon as kits started arriving which was 10 days ago now, we had the first shipment of 150,000 rapid test kits that were distributed to our emergency responders testing sites, skilled nursing facilities and c.b.o. partners of highly impacted communities and very importantly, we are now requiring through the health order, we revised and updated the health order to make tests available per the health order and as you know, the mayor also issued an order penalizing the health care systems to not provide a plan to show that they are going to be able to test their staff and their patients within 24 hours if patients have symptoms or report an exposure. finally, on the lower graph here, you can see that our current seven-day average

testing rate is 18.3% coming down just a bit from from the peak earlier this month and, again, we expect that to continue to drop. next slide, there's a lot of information and dr. susan phillip, our health officer is here to answer any detailed questions with regard to health orders, but just to go through this we are in alignment with the state to require health care workers to get their booster by february 1st. we suspended the indoor masking exemption. that was something that we modified as the surge occurred. we are in alignment with the state to redefine megaevents and beginning february 1st, there will be a requirement that staff and attendees 16 years and older be up to date

on their vaccination series and then march 1st, we will require that attendees 12-15 be up to date on their vaccines as well. skilled nursing facilities because we know that that's where among the most vulnerable to covid reside. we required on site testing of visitors and residents were limited to two visitors per day indoors and i already mentioned that health care facilities are provided covid-19 tests for those symptoms or close contacts and i just want to emphasize the reason for this order was that of the large health care systems in the city that we're doing the' majority of testing in the city. and we need all health care systems to do their part and we had updated and quarantine guidelines to align with the california department of public health cdph which allows

returning to work or school after day five is asymptomatic or symptoms are improving with a negative test. next slide. to emphasize that the city and the department continue to support unified school district at the health department, we affirm support for in-person learning for its positive health effects and positive behavioral health effects that we continue to support vaccines and boosters. we continue to provide vaccines at community sites where there's a high demand from sfusd families and we are working to re-establish school vaccine and booster clinics at schools. we have provided face coverings to the schools and we continue to provide testing, rapid testing test and more tests are arriving from the federal government dedicated to schools and just to emphasize, we have

been very close -- we have a close working relationship with the school we provide technical systems and this has been upon going for the two years we have been in this pandemic. next slide, please. in terms of the future state of covid and i want to declare that these last two years, we have been humbled by being able to predict the future, but i just want to also emphasize we still have a lot of uncertainty going into the future. we do know that the virus for the foreseeable future will remain with us and there may be future variants and surges. we will continue to follow the data and balance the benefits

and harms with our approach and public and other health experts agree that we need to continue to focus on equity, focus on preventing hospitalizations and deaths whenever possible. and, again, that we cannot focus on preventing every case. our focus is to put the best protections in place to achieve these goals including vaccinating and boosting everyone who is eligible, layering strategies to reduce transmission and i would just add we do this for other diseases with sexually transmitted diseases. we have a combination of vaccines, barrier protections

such as condoms, treatments that mitigate the worst of stds for the vast majority of people to use a nonmedical analogy with regard to the risks that we take when we drive. we have the air bags, we have the seat belts, we have the traffic lights, we have the speed limits and depending on the condition, the weather conditions which one might have an analogy with regard to covid prevelence, so this layering of interventions to mitigate the spread and prevent the worst outcomes. we will continue to work with community partners and leaders to prevent and mitigate covid-19 and i think it's also important to emphasize this, but we have learned from hiv in

particular and in other conditions the community really needs to lead and show us the way. i think that's one of the key reasons san francisco has been so successful here and we are deeply committed to doing this and taking the lessons learned from covid-19 and the further inequities that covid-19 has highlighted to address covid and other health inequities. in terms of other possible scenarios for covid in the long term. our covid response could evolve similar to our food response where we have variants on some frequency and vaccines are modified to keep up with those variants, but we are able to continue to live in a functional and society that is not necessarily obsessed with covid and at the same time, there are plausible scenarios where further disruptance highlighting boostering vaccines not only locally but

nationally and, of course, reaching vaccine equity at the international level as well. next slide. in terms of how you can help, this is for everyone. just continue to ensure that vaccination and booster efforts are promoted. support the covid risk reduction approach that i just mentioned. focus on hospital capacity and preventing deaths. help communicate the layered approach to reduce transmission. assist health care providers to provide access. continue to work with us in our work with community and neighborhoods to ensure people have access to covid prevention strategies as well as other health care and balance public health in societal needs. thank you for your attention and i'm happy to take questions and our key dph leadership is here to answer any other questions you may have. >> president walton: thank you

so much, dr. colfax. we do have some folks with some questions. supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you, president walton, and thank you, dr. colfax and team for this update. you know, obviously the surge, you know, hit us very hard and there was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of, you know, concerns about access to testing and particularly as folks were going back to school and so i hope that as we go in the coming months, i know, we don't know exactly what the future holds, but that hopefully we have learned some things in terms of how to respond when we do get hit with such an increase in cases. it did seem like for an amount of time it was hard to give

information on people although we do not know what the future holds, i think if we do have a similar type of sort of surge or new challenges related to the virus, we want to make sure we're able to communicate effectively and expand appropriately. i wanted to ask about something that came up a little bit, but didn't -- i think i've wanted to have more answers to which are access to masks. over the weekend, i was out in viz valley and there was a mask give away and they had n95s given out and they had 500 people show up and wait in line for masks and these were very vulnerable seniors and it's something that i think that is in addition to the tests which we know a lot about may be an

unmet need and i know it's something that the federal government is responding to. how are we making sure that people who want masks particularly those type of masks have access to them? what is our level of ability to deploy those? to deliver them? to send them to people at their homes? there is a massive need out there that i do not think we are meeting right now. >> thank you, supervisor. and just to emphasize that we have emphasized the mask distribution for people and we've been working with multiple community-based organizations. our task force, the hubs that as you know have been focused on covid prevention and distributing thousands of masks since the beginning of the pandemic and during this surge. we also just created many masks and are also now distributing the n95 masks.

[please stand by] >> is there a place where people can call or register or request masks?

i appreciate that. we are distributing. i'm sure we're distributing many. it's just when vulnerable seniors are prepared to wait in line three or four hours and then have the masks they waiting for run out, we still -- i still feel that we need to do more to figure out how to make sure that they have access. is there a number -- what would you recommend people do who don't have access to masks who are not connected to a neighborhood provider. >> we do have a number a number for covid assistance that people can call to get more information where masks are available. we can provide that. >> thank you. on the healthcare providers and

their -- the degree they are following some of the request you made and the mayor's order that she's issued, do you have any data on that? is that being made available in a transparent way? when we were doing vaccines, we were able to track how many they've done and by which provider. are they sharing data with us that you're making available? >> i will turn to dr. susan philip to provide the details and response to your question. we just recently issued the order and the providers are required to report. dr. phil can give you that updated information. >> thank you dr. colfax and supervisor haney. the requirement for reporting

has been in place since august. there was renewed requirement with the surge. we are still processing that data. and working with the health system. the main point of this was really to be in partnership with them and continue to encourage them to provide this for the patient and people that are seeking care at their sites. we don't have data at the moment. it's going to be reviewed. >> supervisor haney: we don't know if anybody -- if part of what we're doing here is monitoring in a realtime way, and potentially fining people, are we getting enough of the da so you can monitor that? obviously, if we don't find out that they haven't been testing

at the levels needed until weeks after we needed it, that was not really all that useful. are you getting the data in any kind of realtime or immediate way that is useful to monitor the testing as we need it? >> we are working to get it on a weekly basis. we are looking at -- it comes to us twice weekly. we ask that they give it in a slightly different format. in the meantime, i have been speaking with them. there's a hospital council leadership to make sure they understand the ask and the reasons for the request for testing. like all providers, they also experience the surge and challenges with access and with delays. the main point of this order is to make sure that the health systems are continuing to contribute for their own patients to do testing that it

is not just the city ramping up when there's a surge as we had in omicron. we are looking at the data regularly and speaking with them as well. >> supervisor haney: thank you. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor melgar? >> supervisor melgar: thank you very much. thank you dr. colfax and dr. phillips. thank you dr. colfax for the briefing that you provided me in my office few days ago. i appreciate that. as we spoke earlier, my concern still remains the little ones and since our conversation, n.p.r. yesterday did a story about the effects of omicron on child care. it is not just in san francisco. it's all through the country that the latest surge has had a

devastating effect on preschool and child care. we've lot of folks who work in those settings have gotten ill and lost staffing. that has repercussions on folks, family's ability to learn a living while their kids are taken care of. this is like an entire population that is unvaccinated by definition because they can't be vaccinated yet. my question is, because the stakes are so high, what are we doing to specifically address that population? i realized it's more difficult to do because there's not like a central office like we have at franklin. it seems to me that i'm not the public health expert, i'm asking

a question, what is our plan? what can we do to focus on this population in this industry? it's so important, they are so important for the health of our city. >> thank you, supervisor for the question. i want to emphasize that we've been working with the child care providers providing technical assistance and guidance in regards to best practices. as we come down out of this surge, we are also working with our colleagues at the state to see if more flexibility can be made with regard to the child care providers similar to some of the policies that are currently permitted in schools that will allow a greater ability to function.

we've also been working with the office of early childhood education and first five to facilitate the technical assistance and the guidance and to provide support and guidance wherever possible. i will turn this over to our deputy director to provide some more details to answer your question further. >> good afternoon supervisors. i wanted to follow-up and say that we know that there are definitely gaps in the child care centers and working very closely with that community in terms being able to provide testing. we do have some testing resources that we've been connecting child care providers with in order to make sure they have access to testing. the state is also setting up a program to ensure that rapid tests are available for child care providers. i know it's been a very difficult time and we are trying to support the best way we can. there should be more resources

in the future. >> supervisor melgar: i'm wondering what we can do to dedicate those resources. technical assistance is great. because this population has suffered more than the general, because they are so important to the life of our city, i'm wondering what we can do to get them testing, not just hook them up to resources? how to provide p.p.e. when needed. i'm just wondering what the request is and who would make the request? is that something that you guys are coordinating with the children council with? i'm wondering what the plan is and how we can support you if there's more resources that are needed or anything that we can do? >> we have been working with the child care providers as well as the agencies that work with

them. we're also at such a burden to quarantine and to isolate and looking at the state to potentially modify some of their recommendations around this. we do know it has a huge impact on families. may not have -- it might not caw the most bang for the buck to quarantine in these little kids that are not high risk for severe disease. continue to have those ongoing discussions with the state to ensure that child care access is available. >> supervisor melgar: thank you. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor chan, do you mind if i call supervisor preston first? >> supervisor preston: thank you president walton. thank you director colfax and

dr. phillips and the whole d.p.h. team for the presentation and all the time spent with our office. i do really want to thank supervisor chan for calling for this hearing and also supervisor safai for calling for the resolution. i think there was a feeling among most of our offices that things were rapidly changing, evolving and lot of different messages out there. i think it was important to move this forward. i think this hearing is important part of that. i did have a few questions on this. one is regarding the unvaccinated right now. director colfax, if you could expand on what we know about who are the remaining -- not fully

vaccinated i should say in san francisco. we know that the under 5-year-olds are not eligible to be vaccinated. who else are we talking about in terms of any demographic information and -- [ indiscernible ] >> thank you, supervisor preston. i think just to emphasize for the people who are eligible and not having to complete their initial vaccine series at this time. this will take out the 5-year-old and 11-year-old, they are eligible and we're at about 58% of those have completed their series and 70% received at least one shot. that's far higher than the national average. if you're over 12 and up in san

francisco, the group that is least likely to be vaccinated on sort of the demographic basis are the age group between 25 and 34. least likely group by identified race, and ethnicity people who identify white or latino. we continuing our efforts to get every person who hasn't been vaccinated who hasn't received that initial series and up to date on their vaccine and eligible, we are continuing with our community sites, our clinical sites, our healthcare partners tourism out and ensure that everybody has the high touch, repeated touches to have the conversations about how safe, effective and these vaccines are. it's literally conversation by conversation, trusted partner.

we realized that for some people, having a conversation with a clinician is not necessarily the first step to getting people to be vaccinated. we're doing everything we can to get those rates to continue to rise. we also have number of incentives that we can go into detail if you like. also as you know, the vaccine requirements are also some of the mandates are also encouraging on people to get vaccinated as well. that work continues where vaccination teams collaborating across other systems to get every shot possible into as many arms as possible as quickly as possible. we still over 100 vaccine sites. we also have our mobile teams. they are going out to people who are homebound reaching groups of people who may not come to a site. we really have done everything

that we can support and everything that the community or whatever we can with the community to ensure that there's low barrier access and the conversations continue. we are continuing to try to get these rates higher even though they're already higher than the vast majority of other jurisdictions in the country. >> supervisor preston: are there any specific strategies targeting the demographic you mentioned, the 25 to 35-year-olds, it's interesting. i think for a lot of us, certainly in our offices are focused all the way through has been on lot of communities of color and promoting vaccines among seniors and so forth. it's interesting that there's a gap seems like in vaccination in

that age group. i'm just wondering what if any strategies there are that target that younger demographic that you referenced? >> i think for the reasons the fact that the pandemic has disproportionately affected black african-american communities, asian pacific islander communities, and latino community. we are focused on ensuring there's testing access and vaccine and booster access in those communities. it's just so important. i think that's one of the reasons we have this outcome. i want to stress that those inequities in parts of our vaccine systems still exist. for instance, among those 5 to 11 that are only recently eligible, we are seeing disparities by race and

ethnicities where black african-americans having lower rate. with the booster numbers we are seeing booster vaccine inequities. that's where we're focusing. we know what's possible. with those initial series that i talked about earlier, we have to a large extent close that equity gap. we're continuing to work with age group between 25 on 34 years old. i don't want to deemphasize that we continue to really support the equity efforts that are so important. dr. bobba can provide more on the 25 to 34-year-old. >> our efforts here really are focusing on where the 25 and

34-year-old may congregate and where we can meet them. it's med through community partners that do lot of the outreach engagement to understand what the barriers are. as it becomes available and if they are appropriate, we offer those as well. as dr. colfax mentioned, it's not a one size fits all with everybody in different populations have different concerns and trying to understand each of these populations concerns and provide them the information. that could potentially sway their decision. >> supervisor preston: what percent of san franciscans have gotten omicron? i understand there's documented cases and there are also just projections. not all the cases come through testing facilities. where are we and how does that

relate to us moving past the peak of infection? >> i really appreciate the question. just to give you what we know in terms of diagnosed cases. we are 104,982 cases diagnosed. we know lot of people are asymptomatic and haven't been tested as a result being asymptomatic. some people may have been symptomatic and not tests and they are not counted. some of the rapid test kits results are not necessarily counted if people are buying kits off the shelves. when we talk to our modelers that we've been working with since the beginning of the pandemic, these are estimates.

what we -- this could change -- they are telling us that by end of this year, they estimate between 25 and 40% of san franciscans would have been exposed to covid. that's not -- that's an estimate based on their modeling. we don't have studies to site more specific number. >> supervisor preston: thank you. i will say that in my view and certainly no contact, constituents there was some level of confusion how we were not seeing restrictive measures. we're allowing folks to gather whether it's a warriors game or a bar. lots of folks gathering. some limited restrictions but not a big clamp down and change.

i will say for my own evolution on this, it is seeing the numbers over 100,000 confirmed cases recognizing the shift in strategy here which is not a recognition that everyone will get this. something close to that is probably where we're headed what we're really doing is trying to limit the rate of the spread so we don't overwhelm hospitals as well as trying to do everything we can to protect the unvaccinated and get them vaccinated wherever possible. i don't want to be putting anything out there that's misleading. that helped me understand some of the shifts in how we're approaching this as i think some have characterized, learning to

live with it in some sense because it's almost not impossible to contain in the way we have with prior variants. >> i think the reason that we have been -- this omicron surge really put a tremendous stress test on our city san francisco, city services and the health department. i think the key reason that -- i'm not suggesting there weren't major challenge and there was a need that were not necessarily be able to be met in the peak of the surge. because of our high vaccine rate and booster rate, we are not in a situation like other parts of the country that have lower vaccination rates where there are very high numbers of deaths. they are not able to staff their hospitals adequately.

that's happening as we speak. we see deaths going back up to the levels that we saw last year at the national level. just to emphasize the bulwark of the foundation of being able to move forward in this. what will be new stages of covid is keeping people up to date on their vaccines and keeping them up to date possible. that also protects the young people, the under five who are not eligible for vaccines. >> supervisor preston: one final area that i have a question on, you and i discussed this when you briefed our office. i think especially with such high case numbers. even if the hospitalizations and deaths will be low are going down, hospitalizations are going down and deaths have remained low. i was hoping you can comment on

the status of research regarding long covid. just with so many folks contracting it, now, i do understand there's a new study that's going. i was hoping you could update the board and the public just on the status of research into long covid. >> with regard to long covid, there was some promising results that came out from study last week that strongly indicated that again, being boosted is suggested that it's strongly protective against long covid. i want to emphasize that. our department is collaborating with some key researchers at ucsf who have been funded on a national institute of health

study to study the prevalence of long covid in people who have had covid in san francisco. that research study is commencing and we are collaborating with the lead researchers at ucsf on this. it will help inform our work going forward and luckily because we will be so closely aligned with the researchers, we'll have this information in a very timely manner. >> supervisor preston: thank you very much for that. i will wrap up just with a comment. i do want to thank the team at d.p.h. i want to recognize all of our residents for being the biggest reason we have these numbers. i don't want go into political

sizing these things. for san francisco for all the grief we get, we have very few science deniers in this city, relative to other jurisdictions. i think that shows up in lot of our strong numbers in our public health response. i want to give the credit where it's due, not just to all the professionals, the health professionals working hard on the pandemic but also to all of our residents who have worn their masks and who have gotten vaccinated and boosted and the work continues. thank you very much. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you president walton. dr. colfax, my question is, i look forward to a bit more clarification and guidance when you talked about living with covid. what does that mean and i specifically am asking about just testing protocols and frequency in general.

i think that i'm a mom of a third grader that attends public school in san francisco. right after the holidays, we all tried to get ready to return to school and that's when we start thinking about -- that was weekend like a panic, thinking about, we need to get tested in order for us to return to school safely. i know i wasn't the only parent with that situation. luckily, we have some home testing kits readily available in my home. that's just because, previously i was searching for it. i want to understand testing protocols, testing frequency for different population, are there any difference between kids and seniors unhoused individuals and our essential workers or they pretty much the same. what does living covid means for

testing and masking protocol. masking mandate is still not required for outdoors but indoors, it is required. if you can walk me through like where we're at this moment with testing protocols and masking protocols? >> to reiterate, one of the challenges it's been that the testing recommendations were shifting from the cec to the state shifts at the local level in terms of recommendations. i appreciate the question. you're correct that outdoor masking is not required but indoors masking is required in many settings. dr. susan philip, our health officer, is the expert on the testing protocols and the health order. i'm going to ask her to provide

more detailed responses to your question. >> thank you, supervisor chan. there's a lot of change and there is confusion. we align -- we look to the c.d.c. guidance and then the state takes that guidance and it creates its own guidance which then are local health jurisdiction are required to follow that guidance or at least as strict as that guidance. we have done that in san francisco because of the density in our city. it worked throughout the pandemic. right now for testing, real indication getting a test are more important than what we were originally. [please stand by]

>> and that people who have previously tested positive or a contact to someone who has tested positive and so those are generally the protocols for which testing is recommended at this point. and for the masking protocols, you have it exactly right. right now the state has a general indoor masking requirement statewide and we also have had an ongoing indoor mask requirement, but outdoors, we recommend it in crowded settings, in large crowds where we can't distance from people but it's not an order or requirement or in our health orders to do it in outdoor settings. but that's the general overview of how we are now thinking about testing and about

masking. >> supervisor chan: that's good to know and i think another question just to the clarification point about traveling. right now it is true or it is accurate to say that the cdc is only requiring testing for international travel and i'm just trying to better understand the testing capacity for international travel in san francisco. i think it also has a lot to do with the fact that, you know, san francisco as we head into economic recovery, we definitely see that tourism is really key to that and just wanted to understand how do we as a city, you know, and partnering with sfo truly understand to boost that capacity for testing for travelers. >> thank you, supervisor, for that reminder, i was thinking

more of our day-to-day lives. but certainly if we're traveling outside of san francisco and particularly to an area that may have higher rates of covid, then we would want to consider testing after travel as well after three to five days of returning. the question is really an interesting one. we have talked with our state colleagues and they had done a voluntary system for international travelers to be tested upon arrival and the cdc has also been working to do something similar, but all of those programs have those challenges, it's not mandated, it's voluntary, and they are able to test a small percentage of people who come through. i think for the most part, the

federal government requirement for vaccination to enter the country and then our own local requirements for vaccination to go to large events or go into restaurants and those types of settings are probably, you know, what is more effective in trying to keep our case rates down, but i agree testing has a role and we'll continue to see what our state and federal colleagues find from their work at sfo and what they end up recommending. >> supervisor chan: thank you. i think i will have followup not today, but separately specifically about travel capacity or just the testing around travelers for sfo on a separate day. this question is the last question that i have. the first time i got stumbled when i was asked this question actually by a school parent, a

constituent in the richmond, i didn't realize because i thought i would justice dispose it. how do you dispose a home testing kit? is there a specific way to dispose it or is it just dump it in the trash? i just want to confront that? >> is it fine if i answer this, dr. colfax? >> please, dr. phillips. >> for the people taking it at home, these are waived tests meaning they are created specifically to be safe to be disposed in regular trash and does not require a special bio hazard bag or disposal. it's a different story when we talk about the rapid tests in a medical setting and those are disposed the way we do in a medical setting and it poses no

harm to anyone in the household or anyone collecting the trash and doing that type of work. >> supervisor chan: thank you. i have no more questions. thank you, president walton. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president walton. and i sincerely want to thank dr. colfax and our chief health officer and dr. baba and all of the staff at the department of public health. i have been particularly focused in a very dense area of the city where there's a lot of congregate settings of shared bathrooms and shared kitchens namely s.r.o.s and i know others of you have and thank you for your support over the last two years and i know that d.p.h. as well has taken that very seriously and last week when my staff and i met with dr. baba and we were talking

about the omicron surge, the good news of course is that you are much less likely to die and much less likely to get it if you are twice or thrice vaxed and have the entire series, but given that it is extremely more transmissive, if you end up with a much higher transmission rate, you end up with the same number of people in the hospital and in acute care as you did when there was a much more veer hasn't virus and less vaccinated population relative to the number of people who were showing up in acute care and in i.c.u. and the reason i bring that up is because as we seem to be turning another page and that's

the page we're coming in terms to live with the virus. i am hearing a lot from s.r.o. residents which is an extremely transmissive environment and there's no way without those resources that the virus doesn't run ram ped in these facilities and ibeen hearing that a lot from constituents and i mean and the cases are really emotionally very charged and at the same time, we are providing beds for our unhoused population which is a good thing, but it's a great thing, but it begs the question about why we are not deploying those resources anymore in that

particularly vulnerable environment. and i know that resources are you know is a constantly changing landscape as well as to what we get from the feds and whatever, but i wanted to respectfully pose that to dr. colfax and his team. >> thank you, supervisor. and i just wanted to emphasize that as we go into a stage where as we come down through this surge and that we hopefully will reach a state where there's a lower prevalence of covid and we mitigate the fact where we have a deep commitment of caring for those most vulnerable to covid including in the s.r.o.s and i know that you've talked to dr. baba about this and i'd like to she had in regard to us

going forward. >> yeah. thank you for that and thank you for the question, supervisor peskin. i fully agree this is a critical population to think about the barriers and the needs and we will continue to work with the task force to understand those needs and provide, you know, the adequate prevention and interventions that we can. in terms of the i.m.q., i do really want to clarify, our i.m.q. is meant for cases that are having moderate disease, but may not need hospitalization or if the hospital needs a place to discharge somebody that can't go home, we are not necessarily providing it to anybody that is unhoused or sheltered because what we've seen is many of those people are asymptomatic or have mild cases. for s.r.o.s if there is a situation where somebody is positive and they're around somebody that's very

vulnerable, for example, very advanced age and they're worried about it transmitting to that person, that could qualify for an i.n.q.. so definitely there is, are you know, casebility there and we can talk more about if those resources are not reaching the right people how to better assist. >> supervisor peskin: maybe we can take it offline with some of the community folks and see what we can do, but i really feel like we've kind of moved our resources out and maybe at the wrong time. anyway. let's continue this conversation. i am worried and with i think good reason. >> absolutely. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: thank

you. thank you, supervisor peskin, for highlighting that. i think we all might of seen the story published in the sf standard that highlighted some of the incidents that are happening now for s.r.o. residents. so just to build on that last point, isolation and quarantine hotels were an important part of how we helped and dealt with covid and moved people away from their homes when they needed to quarantine. particularly in districts in the city and neighborhoods in the city with overcrowded living conditions. so my question to dph is will you still be allotting beds for people residing in overcrowded conditions particularly like those living in sro housing and other forms of overcrowded housing and how do you plan to deal with that dr. colfax and/or anyone on your team?

>> yeah. and just to emphasize, i think the omicron variant is going to be around for the foreseeable future and the most important interventions we need to do is to ensure that everything in crowded conditions is up to date on their vaccinations and as dr. baba just emphasized is that people themselves are at high risk, or are exposed, if they are at high risk and exposed or if and vulnerable to the worst outcomes from covid that we will do everything we can to make beds available. i think during this latest surge, one of the key factors was we need today make sure there was hospital capacity across the city and many of

those isolation beds were being used for people we really didn't, we couldn't have stay in the hospital. they didn't need to be in the hospital from a medical perspective because there were other people who were very ill who needed ton careded for and could be discharged to a place where they were safe and secure in the isolation bed. so going forward, we are committed to doing as much as we can to ensure people who are most vulnerable due to bad outcomes are able to access some level of the isolation in a new era and i think people who get covid will not have a

poor outcome. we certainly want everybody to here we're committed to caring for those who need to care the most and focusing on the people who are really truly still at high risk of the worst outcomes with covid including those who may be boosted and, of course, those who for some reason may not have received vaccines. and, dr. baba, i don't know if you have more to add to that. >> no. i would agree with that. i do think, you know, again, if people have factors even if they're immunized and boosters, but have factors and put them at high risk, we definitely want to prioritize that population. >> supervisor safai: thanks. so my next question is one of the things that we've heard and some of my colleagues have already mentioned and i know that you and i spoke about this last night, dr. colfax, the

requests that we're getting for simple things like testing, access to testing, access to masks or properly fitted masks particularly for children throughout this covid crisis in our city is one of the reasons why we adjusted as a covid coordinated team. can you talk about that coordination and how it will play out. i understand and i think we all see the numbers that you presented that the surge is coming down but there's still going to be impacts felt in many communities over the coming months, particularly children that can't be vaccinated and families that don't have access to testing and so can you talk about how you see that play out and how a coordination between multiple departments can be helpful in responding to this crisis right

now? >> absolutely. and first of all within the covid task force at the health department, we have a number of people who are working on various teams to ensure that people have that were responding to community requests particularly and especially in the communities again where covid has had the biggest impact and the greatest health inequities. so we have our community teams that work closely with our community health that are led by as you know community based organizations. we have our neighborhood teams, we have our health equity teams to make sure we're doing everything we can to meet the needs. whether it's a pop-up clinic for testing or boosters or

distribution of ppe. we work very closely with the department of child, youth, and families, with regard to working with their stakeholders and providing technical assistance and also engaging around vaccines and testing as well. the department of emergency management which as you know led the response early on through the covid command center. we worked very closely with them and since our rapid tests that had been arriving, we have been working with them to distribute the tests to other city departments so that the city can keep functioning and across the variety of other city departments as well with our colleagues that the department of homelessness and supportive housing and h.s.a., the human services agency. so there's a whole level of coordination that's still going on both within our -- the communities that we have focused on as well as within the city and then i would say we also work with our other

health care system partners to a great degree, you know, ucsf and the health department have a special relationship. it's been going on for decades and that work has continued both with regard to ensuring we're using the best science and data to drive our decisions and of course, our staffing, the physician side at san francisco general hospital and with our other health care systems, we work with them including through the hospital council so that we're ensuring that everybody is doing their part and offering testing and ppe and other support to the people who pay for their coverage. i think you know that the vast majority of people in san francisco have health care coverage and we think it's encumbent upon people to get their money's worth in regard to addressing this pandemic. so we have been collaborating with the other health care systems with regard to, of

course, the vaccines,testing, and ppe. i think we've already gone over some of those challenges, but we are seeing progress to varying degrees verdict other large health care systems in the city. >> supervisor safai: so just to go back to the quarantine and isolation hotels because i don't think i got a straight answer on that just so i can understand it. if people need access to that and they need to isolate, do folks in overcrowded living situations i guess s.r.o.s and other housing in the city, do they have access to that type of housing? are you still making that available? >> dr. baba. >> yeah. so there is a specific line that people can call and talk about their situation and, again, if they qualify because there's a vulnerable person in their household that potentially could have a severe consequence from getting covid

that they do qualify. so all of those are taken into our team and then are reviewed in terms of qualifying at this point in time. >> supervisor safai: through the chair and dr. baba, i guess i'm talking about the in s.r.o. housing and having shared spaces either kitchen or bathrooms, if someone contracts covid and there might be other vulnerable people living in that building, in some situations like was referenced in the article, they then are asked not to use the bathroom or the kitchen and then the people that are sharing their room ended up with covid, they might not have a vulnerable person in their immediate room, but there are other vulnerable people living in there and to go back to supervisor peskin's

point i think for those living in overcrowded housing, i think we might of transitioned away too quickly the support. i'm aware of the rules that you set if you have someone in your house hold that's vulnerable then you become a priority, but all the other priorities that people fall into that may not have an immediate family member disqualifies them or doesn't qualify them. so can you talk about that for those living in overcrowded housing because that's playing out on the ground still. we're still seeing and hearing those problems. >> yeah. i do think, we can definitely talk more about this with s.r.o. task force and the providers on the ground and what they're seeing. in general, as dr. colfax mentioned, with omicron what we're seeing is if you're vaccinated and boosted, it tends to be a milder illness.

it goes through the population very quickly and with our resources that we had, really making sure that intervention prevents the most severe consequences with covid but as you point out, there might be wholistic factors that we might consider and we're definitely open to hearing that feedback. >> supervisor safai: yes. i think that overcrowded housing is another one we need to take a look at. it does happen quickly but it does impact peoples' earning ability and their ability to go to school and work and that has consequences based on the isolation and quarantine rules they have to follow from their work place and their school environment. so i want to overemphasize that and so we can talk more about it off line so i just wanted to underscore that here today. my last question is about d.p.h. has talked about scaling up additional testing capacity

and bringing on another vendor to support color. can you talk a little bit about that, dr. colfax, and who that vendor is. >> i can certainly say that i think with the challenges that we had with color, we are looking at other vendors and, supervisor, i just want to respect the city policies and i don't know rules. i'm not sure i am able to name the vendors that we're talking to. >> supervisor safai: it's not finalized yet. >> no. but we are d. looking to expand the number of vendors in the city that are offering testing and, again, i know that we've said this before, but we also are working to ensure that the health care systems have greater capacity as well and then as you know with the rapid test kits coming in through

multiple channels now, we are optimistic that for what we know now that there will be adequate testing in the city of course, if we get a major surge it will still be a challenge, but i think as we've reiterated, it had been better and better prepared for research that has come before us. i'm hoping we will be more prepared for the next one if and when it does come. >> supervisor safai: so how many tests were we initially doing and what does our initial capacity. in terms of testing kits in preparation if there were additional services in the future, do you have any plans to have additional testing kits available as things move forward? >> again, i would go back to with regard to the amount of testing that we were at the in

the late fall, we were doing about 3,500 tests a day across the entire city across all of our sites and at the peak of the surge, we reached 14, 500 a day and our sites were functioning at 500% to 900% capacity. we were taking as many people as possible and the staff were just heroic on their ability. 500% extension beyond what was planned for in terms of the d.p.h. contribution to those tests, we have been doing about 4,000 to 4,500 test its a day across our city sites and with other systems coming into place and requiring of the other health care providers, we are working to maintain that level

of capacity and, again, with these rapid tests coming in and the major health care systems in the city being held to the health order and penalties, there will be other capacities that is happening. of the large systems in the city. 60% of the testing was being done by then and dph was doing 60% of that. and i think entering our third year in the pandemic, we have to distribute that burden. it has major implications in terms of cost. and there's a shared responsibility for people who pay their health care provider that they get the care they need from that provider and d.p.h. will be there for people who don't have other options and make testing as convenient as possible for those populations and the people that we serve in our large clinical system as well. >> supervisor safai: and then, my last piece of that question was about the kits? do we have any plans about the

testing stock piles or to prepare for any future surges? >> yeah. i think we would want to have more rapid tests ready to go if and when there's another surge occurring. we would have been -- had those if there was a supply chain. so i think we would have some level of an ability to have test kits one thing is these test kits expire. so having a very large number of those if a surge does occur and obviously there may be some waste in the system. so we're working to balance that. i think hopefully everybody on this call has ordered their test kits from the federal government and we're waiting whether the federal government or state are able to strengthen those supply chains, i mean, it did feel like march of 2020 with regard of not being able to get the raw materials that

we needed and i think we also are hopeful with our testing providers and we're doing this in contract negotiations making it clear they need to have a better turn around time and demonstrate that and if they're not able to, there will be potential penalties in terms of providing reimbursement for their services if the testing turn around is so far out. and then, again, with our other health care providers ensuring and i know that some of us experience this, our health care provider, you try to make a test for -- an appointment for getting tested for covid and at one point, for some of us that was eight, nine, ten days out and really ensuring that they follow the health order to the degree to make sure that testing is accessible and we have to have an elastic system that responds and i don't think we can prepare for

every possible scenario but i also think we'd be better prepared for what are more likely scenarios going forward, i mean, my crystal ball is out of batteries and into this third year, it's hard to predict beyond what we know right now. >> supervisor safai: thank you, dr. colfax, and i think you and your team as i've said all along along with the people on the front lines have done a tremendous job. and we're all feeling fatigued and overwhelmed but we want to end on a note as soon as possible. i would just say my last closing comment is many of our community based organizations when other child care providers when we were doing at the

height of this, we were distributing hand sanitizer. we were distributing as many things to support their work on the front lines as possible and we've gotten and as you can imagine over the last month and a half, two months, a resurgence of requests for that type of like to respond to as we've done in the past, we were really good at providing that support on the ground and that's somewhat why i asked to have that have that covid coordination team we scaled back so quickly and it scaled up so quickly and the surge happened so quickly that some of the types of organizations and community based folks that

need us and rely on it came back again asking for that support. what are the strategies as we move past this phase to support our community based organizations with p.p. and testing support like our early childhood care providers? >> yes, i really appreciate the question, supervisor safai. and just to reiterate our support for addressing the needs of our organizations that continue to serve the most vulnerable and as you know, in your district and other districts we have the community hubs that are working very hard to ensure as many of those needs can be met as possible. i think the other thing supervisor, during this surge different from the last surges is not only do we need to redeploy people who had been in the emergency state for two years we've had very large numbers of that was

particularly a challenge in being able to staff some of these basic issues that you're bringing up and being able to have people available to help these struggling organizations. we literally had hundreds of staff out across the department and certainly across the other city departments as well. so i think we're over the most challenging in that regard and, again, our supply chains of the tests are strengthened. the ppe is coming in and we're able to supply those tests and the masks to our most vulnerable and i think we need to strengthen the coordination with our other departments to make sure if they have a point of contact or the correct point of contact in the other departments or other points in the city like the c.b.o.s to make sure they get the supplies

they need. >> thank you, dr. colfax. thank you, mr. president. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: thank you, president walton. first, i want to thank d. colfax and baba for engaging in this discussion. colleagues, you've all asked i guess my first question is more around evaluating our city's preparedness for this latest omicron surge and, you know, unfortunately for me personally, i kind of experienced a lot of what you just described in your beginning presentation and what played out over the last month here in san francisco. two thirds of my household got sick that first week in january which was the peak. it coincided with the return to

school and there's just a lot of confusion and anxiety that and really most of this last month confusion around what the new protocols were on isolation and quarantine not being able to access testing and, yeah, so, you know, fortunately, for our family, we also like most people recovered really quickly and it was mild, but i guess it seemed like service just a chaotic situation when the omicron hit and there was a lot of scrambling and anxiety and it seemed like we had dismantled a lot of the covid

response infrastructure that we had built up for the first year or two, that was really so effective. almost like eye fine tuned machine and it really allowed san francisco to become a leader in the country in responding, but then when omicron hit. we were prepared to ask the question how would you assess our preparedness for this latest surge and is there anything, you know, out of our experience looking ahead that we could do in case there's another surge coming? >> thank you, supervisor. and i would go to the outcomes that we've had and i agree this was a tremendous stress test on the city and we have really

minimized i think the worst outcomes in terms of the deaths and that is because of the hard work that our team and many of you supported with regard to vaccines and boosters into arms, you know, i think that we were better prepared then almost in any other jurisdiction in the country as far as i'm concerned because of the fact we had such a strong coverage. these vaccines in boosters were the foundation and if you -- i reviewed in the data we are doing much better with regard to those outcomes and also our hospitals continue to take care of people who had other health care needs and that was different from 2020 where we were basically asking people to stay out of the hospital so i think those have no consequences with people

dealing with care. i think for the most part able to stay open. there was a lot of information that was developing. i think we were all under the shared education of what we knew and didn't know about omicron and that was changing rapidly depending on what the science showeded us. testing was a challenge, but i would also emphasize we did more testing during the omicron surge than we averaged in the last two years so just on the fact that we still weren't able to meet all the needs, i would respect that and i would go back to the fact we need our other providers to step up as well and the fact that the raw materials are simply not as available.

so i would certainly hope we'd have more test kits available and other health care systems are able to do their parts so we can there was so much traveling. communications were particularly difficult over the holiday season and just in terms of our public messaging, i was particularly challenged in a time where a lot of people just need it and were given a break and i certainly understand that as well. >> supervisor mar: yeah. thank you. thanks for that. and um, yeah, i'm just well, and then so yeah, thanks, dr. colfax. i guess my other question is looking ahead. i understand the new approach

now given the understanding of where we're at with the pandemic is to focus not so much on preventing every case which is what the approach was earlier on in the pandemic to reduce hospital stations and i.c.u. i have a question if that applies to seniors and other vulnerable populations and whether for them given the fact if they do contract the virus that they're more likely to require hospitalization and have serious health effects whether it's the same approach for them or whether there's some additional protocols and protective measures we have for even yours and vulnerable populations in this new phase. >> i appreciate that, are supervisor, and, again, if somebody is 65 and above, it's

key that people get those boosters again to the cdc data that came up last week. so that's just huge and and i think we at the health department as you know the largest health facility in the country we are continuing to layer those defenses and there will be a continued effort to layer those efforts probably to a larger degree than what will be in the public. in term of masking protocols and we will align with the state that requires people to be up to date on vaccinations. even with those vulnerable populations how we can go back to a less disruptive state when we're not in the middle of the most disruptive surges and i'm

optimistic we will be able to do that, but it is so key that the most vulnerable in these congregate residential settings have access to the vaccines and boosters which is why we do everything we can. we've had mobile teams go out. we've had lots of events to ensure we've had such a high coverage rate among 65 and over and we really do, i'm proud of that, but we need to continue to make sure that everybody in that age group is up to date on their vaccine series. >> supervisor mar: thank you, dr. colfax. and thank you supervisor chan. and thanks, president walton. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mar. i'm sorry. i don't see anyone else in the roll and i know we have interpreters that are leaving. so if we could go to public comment, madam clerk on this item specifically. >> clerk: yes, the board of supervisors will now hear board

of testimony on the city's response to address the omicron surge. the telephone number is streaming on your screen. using a touch phone dial 1 (415) 655-0001. when you hear the prompt, enter the meeting id, 246884621722. you'll hear the discussion, but your line will be muted and once you're ready to get into the queue to provide it testimony, press star three. when it is your turn, listen carefully for the prompt that you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. we appreciate as the president stated for the interpreters being with us. operations, let's hear from our first caller. we have eight who are listening and three in the queue. welcome, caller. >> caller: hi, thank you.

i want to very briefly thank the honorable supervisors and all the health professionals for keeping san francisco safe and listening to the science unlike other jurisdictions like idaho and sadly kasichet county washington where the meeting was canceled today. endanger in serious thoughtful discussion in how to defeat covid-19 like the brave souls you are. but i die aggress. i just wanted to call and give you moral support and as always praise supervisor stefani for standing up to crime. thank you for all you're doing, god bless you and be safe. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. atkins, let's hear from our next caller, please.

>> caller: good evening board of supervisors, madam clerk, president walton. this is gilbert chriswall of district 8. i want to thank supervisor chan for having this hearing and supervisor preston for his questions and president walton for his concerns of covid. i know the city attorney is prosecutoring or suing these fake testing sites, but i mean there was a fake testing site yesterday in the castro. and over the weekend there was a fake testing site over in delores park. what is going on? what harm is this causing to

the community. i don't even know if i want to go get tested whether it's going to be a real site or a fake site. please address those concerns. thank you. >> clerk: mr. atkins, let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: good evening supervisors. my name is paul. i wanted to call tonight to emphasize that i agree with the by in large public health guidance from our city. but a specific piece needs more clarity and needs more specificity. as we've seen emphasized tonight. congregate settings are not safe and this new plague proves that our mass incarceration system is fundamentally

unscathed. when we examine the public health guidance from our city we see on april 24th of last year recommended to chasa boudine's office recommends that he should not hold more than 99 people. around why it was made. but the honest answer is that it was in response to medical guidance. as the majority of the epicenters of this plague in our country have been behind bars. so seeing these continued process and seeing this continued guidance, last year,

on october 14th, dr. so i have to ask tonight as associated with omicron and how many more prisons should we let go and how do we deal with a campaign surrounding these essential releases for our public health. they've been nationwide with even william barr from the ex-d.o.j.. we've had jerry nadler. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. atkins, do we have another caller in the queue please. >> caller: hi, my name is jessica lamen and i'm with senior and disability action. i appreciate all the comments and questions of support tonight. my biggest concern and we in san francisco and across the

country have been deeply concerned about how often we've been ignored and many of us have really isolated ourselves and are so isolated and so people talk about kind of going back to normal. what does that mean for those who are at risk and recently the head of the cdc said it was quote unquote encouraging that people are dying of omicron with multiple health conditions. that was not okay. she apologized for that. but we can't assume that omicron is mild and we don't need to worry. there are also people who are immuno compromised so there's a number of questions that i hope we can talk about. what are the plans for people in skilled nursing facilities and other care facilities. what are we doing about unhoused facilities. what about sick leave for people at risk of severe covid or have a high-risk person in

their household. what about people who can't find or afford home test kits. people who can't afford to stay home from work. people who live in a household with more than four people because of all the u.s. government is sending to folks. what do we understand about long covid. i urge us not to be woven to a false sense of security, but to be very real about what we can do and who we are sacrificing. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we understand there are seven individuals who are listening. if you would like to speak this evening, you should press star now. mr. atkins, can we hear from our next caller, please. >> madam clerk, there are no further callers in the queue. >> clerk: thank you, mr. atkins. mr. president. >> president walton: thank you. seeing no other speakers, public comment is now closed. colleagues, any other comments, supervisor chan, what is your wish? my apologies.

supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: thank you, president walton. i just wanted to ask on just following up on some of the public comment iffed the department of public health had any guidance, i believe it was mr. chriswell raised the questions about feeling the lack of confidence at the testing sites because of some of the fake testing sites out there. so if there's any update or any information on what to look for in deciding whether to trust a testing site, i think that's an important thing to address. >> president walton: thank you, dr. colfax. >> i'm pleased to say we do have an update and our health officer, dr. susan phillips has been addressing this issue. >> thank you, dr. colfax and thank you, supervisor preston. yes. there are two ways in which we are approaching this. we do feel this is a really important issue.

we want the public to be able to trust the test sites that are in place in san francisco and we don't want unscrupulous and rogue site collections setting up so the city attorney's office as you all have seen is following up as well and looking into and pursuing action against some of these rogue collection sites. additionally today, we have released a health order that requires a certain standard for these collection sites that are operating in san francisco. right now there are gaps and statewide requirements and it sets the standards by which they should have for people who potentially use the site as well as the city to make sure that everything is being

followed. there will be requirements for this site. there will be informed consent requirements for people getting the testing and they'll have to have all the information for the lab that they're working with which has to have a documentation including license over the laboratory. that is being issued as of today. we'll put in an additional layer of protection and we will be looking into any sites that are reported to potentially being not legit mate sites serving the public in san francisco. >> supervisor preston: thank you. and just one other question that i think was elevated in public comment, but i was hoping that someone from d.p.h. could address which was specifically the plans for people with disabilities. i think it really was

unfortunate to be charitable the way this was framed and i do appreciate the apology at the national level. obviously that's not the message that should be sent or how our policy should be structured for people with disabilities. i just want to give d.p.h. an opportunity to send whatever the san francisco message is in how we're addressing the particular risks for the community in san francisco. >> yes, supervisor preston, i can answer that. we have continued to work with the mayor's disability office. not every population is going to have the same needs as we go into this next phase and really again talking about the most vulnerable populations of this

disease may require added layers such as ongoing masking can and really thinking through the benefits as people act with the society and so i'm really looking forward to having those conversations with the disabilities advocates to try to chart a path for it. >> supervisor preston: thank you, mr. president. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor preston. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, president walton. and thank you colleagues for your engaging conversation with the department of public work i mean public health and to make sure that we get our questions answered and really just for our constituents too and for this information that's much needed. i would suggest that we file this hearing today and so i hope to have your support because i think that we should really continue to, one,

continue to track the reports that we get weekly from the department of public health and thank you, president walton and his office for helping to provide that information and in the event that we feel like we see another surge which i hope not then we can come back and have another hearing. at this time, i urge for your support to file this. >> president walton: thank you so much. this hearing is now filed. thank you, dr. colfax, dr. baba and dr. phillips. madam clerk, do we have any imperative items. >> clerk: i have none to report, mr. president. >> president walton: thank you, and is there any other business for us today? >> clerk: the in memoriams

today's meeting will be adjourned on behalf of supervisor mar for the late mr. ronald kadero and mr. glenn foster. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk, is there any other business for today. >> clerk: that concludes our business for today. >> president walton: blaming has no positive effect at all nor does trying to persuade reason and argument. that is my experience. no blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. if you understand and you show that you understand, you can love in the situation will change. thick not hand. this meeting is adjourned.

>> we are providing breakfast, lunch, and supper for the kids. >> say hi. hi. what's your favorite? the carrots. >> the pizza? >> i'm not going to eat the pizza. >> you like the pizza? >> they will eat anything. >> yeah, well, okay.

>> sfusd's meal program right now is passing out five days worth of meals for monday through friday. the program came about when the shelter in place order came about for san francisco. we have a lot of students that depend on school lunches to meet their daily nutritional requirement. we have families that can't take a hit like that because they have to make three meals instead of one meal. >> for the lunch, we have turkey sandwiches. right now, we have spaghetti and meat balls, we have chicken enchiladas, and then, we have

cereals and fruits and crackers, and then we have the milk. >> we heard about the school districts, that they didn't know if they were going to be able to provide it, so we've been successful in going to the stores and providing some things. they've been helpful, pointing out making sure everybody is wearing masks, making sure they're staying distant, and everybody is doing their jobs, so that's a great thing when you're working with many kid does. >> the feedback has been really good. everybody seems really appreciative. they do request a little bit more variety, which has been hard, trying to find different types of food, but for the most

part, everyone seems appreciative. growing up, i depended on them, as well, so it reminds me of myself growing up. >> i have kids at home. i have six kids. i'm a mother first, so i'm just so glad to be here. it's so great to be able to help them in such a way because some families have lost their job, some families don't have access to this food, and we're just really glad to be

>> january 25 of 2022. regular meeting of the san francisco public utilities commission. madame secretary, please call the roll. [roll call] and you have a quorum. due to thon going covid-19 health emergency and given the public health recommendations issued by the san francisco department of public health, and the emergency orders of the governor and the mayor

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