Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the special public safety committee meeting of September 18, 2025.

Our committee liaison, Sarah Jordan will provide information and instruction for the public to participate in today's meeting.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Von Wilbert.

While members of the public are able to attend the meeting in person, this meeting is being televised and live streamed on the city's website, and council administration will continue to make arrangements for the public to comment using the Zoom webinar platform.

Members of the public who wish to provide testimony via call-in or internet-based service option must enter the virtual speaking queue within five minutes after the conclusion of in-person public testimony or before the virtual speaking queue is exhausted, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better meeting management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

Committee member Campbell.

Committee member Whitburn.

Present.

Also attending the meeting today is Laura Easton from the Office of the City Attorney.

Bekou Patel from the office of the IBA and Coda Zeizer from the Office of the Mayor.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it in the box indicated at the table at the front of the room.

Please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

In-person testimony will conclude before virtual testimony begins, and members of the public can join the webinar by computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the link which is listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's webpage to join the Zoom webinar by telephone.

Please dial 1669-2545252 and when prompted.

Please participate via the audio on your phone and mute your TV or computer when it is your turn to speak.

If you wish to speak to a particular item, please wait for that item to be called and then raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you're a called participant by pressing star nine on your phone.

If your hand if you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

A quorum is now present.

And as a note, we will hear our agenda out of order today.

We'll hear our consent items, followed by item four.

Then item three encloses item five.

So it's consent four, three, and then item five.

A non-agenda public comment will be taken at the end of the meeting after all of our agenda items.

Uh, right now, are there any committee member, mayor, city attorney, or independent budget analyst comments?

All right, hearing none.

Do we have any requests for continuance?

Hearing none, we will now begin with our consent agenda.

Uh, do we have any requests to pull an item from consent?

Hearing none, we will now move forward with public comments.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair.

The consent item, the consent items on the agenda today are item number one, approval of the committee minutes from July 23rd, 2025, and item number two, approve the second amendment to an agreement with medical priority dispatch corporation for the San Diego Fire Rescue Department.

Each speaker will have one minute.

Cesar Javier, you have submitted the speaker slip for items number one and two, and Perita Javier has ceded her time to you for items number one and two.

So I will place two minutes on the clock for you to manage.

Excuse me, four minutes on the clock for you to manage.

Special meeting, urgent meeting.

Thank you, Uncle Song.

The process is working.

That's our body language.

We are here to appear to ask to help.

Help my city, our city, help our public officials, help our employees' department heads, directors, the police department, and our public.

This is all about public safety, which we missed on the yester time minutes.

We were in attendance with other meetings.

Sorry for not attending those meetings.

And thank you.

You have resumed this important kind of discussion.

Public safety.

In previous minute, you saw us verbal and body language.

On number two on policy, contract, contract.

Fire victims rescue department should be the name, not rescuing fire.

Look at the words, attorney.

Fire rescue.

How could you rescue fire?

It's seasonal.

We should not rescue fire, but destroy it.

Possible.

That's what we understand as public.

Come on.

Language.

Why not?

We also give solution, not just to criticize.

Why not recruit Sandergans?

Train them.

And be an organic members of the firefighting department, including you know the medical response mom.

Why not?

Why not?

That's the reason why we elected you to think, to work, and not to be absent, like Councillor Rivera or Councillor Campiglio.

Uh clerk, attorney, clarification.

There must be a reason when someone is absent.

So that the public will be aware.

What happened?

Did he die already?

Or she is now in advance party of Marcel, France, trade mission.

Let us know.

Because we are paying for their salary.

How much is your salary monthly, Dr.

Campbell?

Fourteen thousand per hundred something plus or minus.

And you absent yourself from the air pollution control governing body.

Unfair to us.

Unfair to us.

We are hurt physically, psychologically, financially.

Don't you know that?

The leadership is failing.

He is only good at cutting the rebun and smile while San Jegans are dying.

Power victims.

Flood victim.

Criminality victims.

Now come on, talk now.

Discuss this because this is priority.

Help, please.

Thank you for your concluding remarks.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment to the consent agenda.

Phone number ending in 8700.

If you can please unmute and indicate which item or items you'll be speaking to.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Only item two, please.

All right, one minute, please begin.

Yes to this item, a big yes, and a big thank you to everyone who does the work.

I did have confusion over the uh amount that we're approving.

And I I can't go through the whole math with you.

I don't have time, but I I got $57,090, but it stated that per year it'll be 67,580.

So I couldn't get the math to work.

Now on the EOC, admin workforce indicates underrepresentation for females in management and financial and professional and technical and Latino and female in sales.

The workforce report, which is all admin, 272 employees.

Of that total, 126 are male white, 87 female white.

To me, every other category seems to need help with equality numbers.

Please work on that.

Love to all.

Thank you for your comment.

And chair seeing no other hands up in the virtual queue.

This concludes testimony for the consent agenda.

Thank you very much.

And I'll now turn over to my committee members for any questions, comments, and emotion.

We have a motion by Councillor Whitburn.

Uh second by uh councilmember Campbell.

And um, I just have one comment I want to thank uh the department for bringing this contract forward before it expires, which is going to be the end of October, October 30th, 2025.

Uh, we're working very hard on making sure we approve contracts before they expire, and this is a critical one for our dispatch system.

Um, so I just note to um the mayor's team in Coda to make sure this gets on the full agenda before October 30th so that I can vote for it before it expires.

But thank you.

And with that, please take the roll.

And the consent agenda passes unanimously 30 with Vice Chair Kempio absent.

All right, thank you very much.

We're now going to move on to our information agenda item four.

Um, Sarah, please introduce item formal of speakers.

Please come forward.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number four is the UCSD Health Transition Support Team Pilot Program update.

If you're watching on City TV, the live stream online, and you'd like to call into the meeting to speak, please dial 1669-2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 161-217-1797 pound.

Chair.

All right, good morning.

Thank you for being here.

Um you might need to pull the microphone a little closer.

Um, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you'll need for your presentation.

One second, we're having some microphone difficulties.

Here we go.

All right, good morning, everybody.

Uh my name is Dr.

Steve Koe.

I am the uh current psychiatrist in chief and associate chief medical officer for UC San Diego Health, and I'm pleased to give you an update um on the our partnership with the city um called the transition support uh team.

Uh we know that uh approximately three San Diego's die from overdoses every day.

Uh in 2023, 1,200 three Sandyans died from overdose.

The fentanyl continues to be our leading cause of over those deaths, um uh which appears in about 62 percent of all fatal overdoses.

These numbers uh have started to come down.

However, um the over impact of opiate crisis and impact on our city continues uh unabated.

Currently, 30 to 40% of all patients appearing in emergency departments have substance related diagnoses.

In 2024, recognizing the need for a tailored approach, City of San Diego partnered with UC San Diego Health to create a pilot program.

And this was done under leadership of Councilman von Wolper.

And the idea behind this was to create a model where we could engage patients with opioid use disorders in the emergency rooms at the time of encounter and to ensure that they are connected to outside agencies and correct levels of care so that they could be supported throughout their opiate recovery process.

This pilot year we designed a program that's centered around two licensed social work providers who specialize in substance use treatment and connection to the community.

And these individuals started their full onboarded practice and work in our La Jolla and Hillcrest emergency rooms in September of 2024.

And we're happy to report significant improvements in our care for our citizens since the starting of this program.

The assessments and substance use referrals have increased by 20% in Hillcrest and 23% in La Jolla.

These are in the emergency departments in those respective hospitals.

Program has established successful linkage from the emergency department to external community partners.

And we have found that these programs are essential in saving lives, decreasing health care costs, and sustaining early progress in combat against opiate epidemic.

The graph here shows you the number of referrals and cases that we have supported since the start of this program.

And you can see the dramatic increase and the sustainment that has occurred in those two emergency rooms.

As we reviewed the work from that initial pilot year, we we have been able to identify some significant gaps of what we've been doing.

First is that there has been an increase in need in our East Campus emergency room.

That is the old Alvarado hospital.

We also have identified that focusing on just weekend days is not sufficient.

We obviously need to have extended hours and go into the weekends.

And we had a difficult time engaging with admitted patients in our medical floor.

So these are individuals who are so sick that they have to be admitted from the emergency rooms.

And it was also clear to us that we need to engage with our external partners.

And the question is what happens when they cross that threshold, either in or outside of the EDs.

And we're very excited to present that model here today.

To do this, we will increase the OCSW or social work support not only within our EDs but also externally.

What this will allow us to do is to follow track and help patients who are coming in and out of the EED in sort of a revolving door type fashion.

And we believe that this will ensure that the treatments that we start in the emergency rooms and in the hospitals are continued as they go outside of our system.

We will do this seven days a week.

Finally, uh psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner consultants will be 100% uh placed in our community partnership sites, uh such as FQHCs, community-based organizations, and also with our PDEMS and fire and rescue to provide direct care and linkages in the external environments outside of our hospital.

UCSD will continue to uh support our peer support navigators uh and we will uh provide physician leadership supervision, uh, provide uh up-to-date data-driven clinical processes uh and administrative oversight without any charge to the city.

And so this is a shared uh obligation uh and shared resources between UCSD and the city.

Uh we believe that this will uh create a significant impact uh in our fight uh against the opiate uh epidemic uh in the city of San Diego, and we will support our partners on the outside and ensure that um our publicly uh funded and public university uh provide support uh to our citizens in need.

Thank you very much.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation, and uh Sarah, please proceed with any public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We've received two slips here in chambers, Cesar Javier.

You have been seated time by Parita Javier.

Each speaker will have two minutes, so I will place four minutes on the clock for you, say sir and purita seniors, victims of toxicity, earnestly, semper BG Lans.

We are watching you, we are sensing you even in our sleep.

This is corruption.

You're trying to campaign.

We want governing governing public service.

We elected you to think, not to campaign.

Where is the mayor, Mister?

You don't have to answer.

You are always busy with the big CCO and ribbons, and the nice English language and the mystic smile, Mona Lisa.

Why am I debating from this grammatically or language-wise?

Why?

Something is wrong.

You're using UCSD.

We have a royal solution here, 9-1-1, and they evacuate the victims to the hospital.

Why do you have to complain this?

Caesar, please address the body up here.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

This is you asked me to comment.

And these are my comments.

You're interrupting me.

It's in here, mom.

Why do you have to spend time resource for campaigning when there was already a solution?

When there is a victim of drugs, 9-11 and the police will immediately respond.

They call the fire and medics.

You are expending again.

Wasteless.

Is this your expected intelligences?

This is out of moral dimension, mom, with all respect.

Oh, we do not understand moral dimension.

It's not two, three feet by fit cubic meters.

No, sir, Mr.

Whitburn.

It's just within showing us the right thing to do.

You're not.

I'm sorry, sir.

You're only a follower.

Don't follow these leaders because they're giving us.

And you're wasting money instead of going into buying Tylenol, buying vitamins while cleaning up this mess at the Juana River.

Mom, let's think within the moral dimension bounds.

We have ten intelligences.

I will never forget that from my learning at national or what they call university of life.

We have all ten fingers here.

No one has nine or eight, including the director somewhere.

Ten.

And we're missing that intrapersonal.

Let's know ourselves.

Am I doing right or wrong?

Mom.

You hug us.

And you declare that your name queen of public safety.

We felt that moral dimension, that heart, and you wanted to help.

Why are you not unleashing the solution?

Especially our toxic victims in our community.

Why?

Where is the money?

Where is the resources?

You know what?

You're missing the best, the most wealthiest, the most treasure resource.

What is that?

Trust.

Trust off some diggings.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment for item number four.

We'll begin testimony with phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six, and you will have two minutes.

And not cry.

Thank you, Chair, so much for all your work in this area.

And thank you, UCST, and all the other people that are doing this work.

This is a tough one.

Because I can't get over three deaths a day in San Diego.

I can't get over it.

It almost keeps me from doing my work.

What are we going to do?

This pilot program is wonderful.

Thank you, thank you.

Do it.

We're doing our best, but what we're missing something.

And I don't have any answers.

But why are they doing this?

Why are they choosing to die?

When they could be living and doing things in life.

What are we missing?

Now what saved my brother when he came back from Korea?

And he was addicted to I don't know how many things was love from the women he fell in love with.

That saved him.

He threw the stuff away.

And she saved him.

But that's complicated.

That's not so available and easily found.

But what are we going to do with the cause, the core of why this is happening in the world in our country, in our local community?

Three people are dying.

Three are dying a day.

I can't accept it.

And I just don't know what to do.

I bet these are a lot of young people.

Thank you for sharing your testimony.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you.

And chair with no other hands in the queue.

This concludes testimony for item number four.

Thank you very much.

And what we have any questions or comments from my colleagues, beginning with uh council member Kimball.

Thank you so much for the for the presentation.

I really enjoyed hearing about this program.

This program is paid for from uh the opioid settlement, I believe, yes.

And we can thank our chair for being so involved in getting that money done.

And uh I can't thank uh the University Medical Center enough for for taking this on.

I trained at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, graduated in 1980, family medicine.

So I've seen 45 years of these problems.

It was barbituate when I was in med school.

That's what everybody took an overdose on.

Um I must say that I have felt a few moments ago as if I was working back in the ER in the university psychiatric hospital in the early 70s, and it it feels like um when we interviewed the patients and and we didn't really have a button to push for admission, but we knew immediately who would be admitted and who wouldn't.

Unfortunately, the laws have changed, and we can no longer help those who are mentally ill get the hospitalization care they need immediately.

We need to go back to the system where the doctors can do that if necessary for the patient's well-being.

We had a couple of drugs, remember.

Oh God.

I'm trying to remember the names of them.

There were a couple that were just awful because the patients felt so sleepy on them.

They would lose their paranoia.

They would lose their schizophrenia and their their bipolar, and they would they would, but it might take two years and a lot of talk therapy.

But they didn't feel good on that drug because of the side effects, stellasine, thorazine.

Nowadays we have realized, and thanks in in great part to the University of Pittsburgh because we did a lot of the research that showed us that psychiatric disease occurs because of neurotransmitters not working correctly in the brain.

And so what we need to do medically and pharmacologically is get those neurotransmitters back into the balance that Mother Nature intended so that the patient can be in reality and think clearly.

And we have much better medications nowadays.

And I remember Dr.

Luke from the uh county health department came and uh discussed uh how within even two weeks of hospitalization, many patients are able to get back into reality.

And the problem then was how do we get them out of the hospital but still keep them taking their meds and following the path to being uh a productive citizen who's enjoying life.

And the answer is the step down, the transitions, the things that the university is doing for those who are addicted.

And I I hope you also do it for those who aren't addicted but have the have the psychotic um breaks.

Because nowadays it's just so much better.

The medications are so much better.

Uh we need so what is the answer?

We need more psychiatrists who understand uh these situations.

We need more of the psychiatric nurse practitioners.

We need um social workers who understand this, and they need to be paid better who can spot this going on so we can try to prevent before the person ODs.

We need to be able to say to families, if you have a member who's addicted and has this problem, we've got a center where you can bring them, and hopefully we can help them to get into care and get over the addiction.

Speaking of addictions, we now have wonderful medications also that help people get off the addiction.

So it isn't as hard.

So we understand how difficult addiction is for the person.

Um back in that day, everybody smoked.

I smoked only for five years, and my kindergartner came home and said, Mama, why are you smoking in front of the baby?

Don't you know cigarettes are bad for kids?

And she was five and the baby was two, and and I said, off from the mouths of babes comes the truth.

And do you know it took me 40 tries to get off those cigarettes?

I was so mad that I was addicted.

So this is the flower children generation that I was in.

And I'm telling you, everybody was using all kinds of drugs: LSD and heroin, everything, you name it.

We didn't have fentanyl, thank God, so we didn't have as many ODs.

But I did not use any of that stuff, not even marijuana back in the 60s when I was in college.

Why?

Because I wanted my body to be clean.

I understood my mother who said your body is the vessel of your soul.

You do not take drugs.

You do not drink too much alcohol.

You do not, she she smoked three packs a day though.

Anyway, I knew that addiction is is terrible, and I knew I was addicted to the cigarettes.

Thank God I didn't try other drugs.

Maybe I would have been addicted to them.

But I think it's a it's a rough problem.

And uh addiction and psychoses, I don't even know if we call them that anymore.

They need medical treatment and they need step-down type units, transitional care outside of their inpatient care.

And uh a lot of addictive people don't even need inpatient care, but they do need the step down and the transition and the continuing care actually through life.

And so I can't thank you enough.

I'm sorry I'm going on and on, but uh I usually only talk for about 30 seconds up here.

So I'm not really a politician, I'm a physician.

But I'm just so thrilled with what the university is doing, and thank God for our chair who who helped to get us that opiate money uh through that lawsuit so that we could uh progress in the in the treatment.

And I'm uh family medicine were big on prevention.

So, you know, uh one of my old friends Ben Franklin, that's I that's how old I feel, uh said, you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

And that is true.

If we can start at the beginning, as I believe our our citizens were telling us, what is causing this?

If we can all say it takes a village, and it I I don't know if I have any time left, but I want to give an example.

In Vermont, when uh we had a physician who was governor of Vermont.

He was governor for 12 years, I think it was three terms.

He went on later to be a politician.

Uh but at any rate, uh he said, gee, the jails are getting more and more full.

What's going on?

And so he decided to start a program at the beginning of life, so that the jails could maybe have less people who were committing crimes and we wouldn't have to fill the jails.

And indeed, he started program where in his state, which is a small state was uh Vermont, I think, or New Hampshire, Vermont.

And he started a program where in the hospital as soon as a baby was born, because a lot even in his day, they would send them home within 24 hours, unless there was some problem they had to stay.

And so right away the the trade nurses would come in and talk to the mother, hopefully the father or other family members would be there too, and say, you know, uh babies are tough.

It's you know the hardest job on earth is to be a parent.

And so uh we want to help you.

And here's some here's some guidelines, and they actually talked to them about how hard it is.

They gave them the honest to God truth and said, uh, you know, if you need help, here's phone numbers to call.

Uh, you know, if you don't have grandma to ask for advice or you would like some other advice, please feel free to call.

They gave them ideas of books to read, etc.

And the then they sent them home and they said, Would you mind if we do a home visit?

And 98% of the patients said, Yes, please.

In one in one week, they said, we'll come to your home and see how it's going.

And they were shocked that the patients wanted the home visit.

Oh, I'm in family medicine, so I'm not shocked.

We used to do home visits.

Anyway, they would go to the home and they would say, How's it going?

What's going on?

And of course, the truth would come out.

I haven't slept in a week.

The baby cries all the time.

I don't know what's going on with the baby, why are they unhappy?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And so they would give them help to deal with these situations, which are common with new babies.

And uh so then over the years, now the governor wanted this to go on for 20 years and then see if the prison population went down.

Well, he only was in office 12 years.

And after 10 of this program, they could see already the prison population was going down.

But then the next governor didn't keep up the program.

So I don't know what happened.

I hope some PhD student will go to that state, look up all those people who are now 40s, 50 years old, and see how they turned out.

Did it help them that they had a village to help them with the baby, to help them with the young children?

That's what it takes.

We all do this together, and usually we rely on our families.

But many people don't have a family that can do that.

And so we all have to help in and be community and help them.

Anyway, I I've gone on way too long, but this is the answer to the questions.

The answer is start at birth.

Support everyone so they can grow up healthy and make good choices.

Every day we're faced with moral, moral chip choices.

So help everyone, and then if they have a problem, help them as the university is doing.

What a wonderful program.

Do you have any statistics on the outcomes?

Yeah, so uh the two EDs we've had 20 to 25% increasing uptick of patients that we're encountering.

Um, and that's just within the the eight hours during the regular work day, uh which is not uh uh which is not sufficient.

Um these patients show up 24-7.

Um and so I so that's why we think that expanding it to seven full days is the way to go.

Um and also um some of these patients, it's not uncommon for them to show up to our emergency departments um 30, 40 times even within a month or so.

That's a significant amount of time.

Um and so what's happening is they're not getting their needs met when they leave the emergency room.

Um I I don't, you know, uh no longer do we uh separate substance use and mental illness.

Umstance use uh disorder is a true disorder.

Uh we now understand this.

Uh we also understand that social determinants of health is as impactful as our genetic makeup and the substance that we put into our body.

And so what that tells us is that uh acute interventions in an acute hospital type setting is not sufficient to ensure that they are protected uh from future use um and ongoing medical uh issues from uh their their substance use.

And so really uh partnering with the outside organizations and um getting support from the city, county, et cetera, so that we're all looking at this as you sort of uh put it kind of like this of a a meta village, if you will, um, to ensure that our citizens are getting all the care that they need, no matter where they are in the stage of their recovery.

And so that's really the goal.

And so if everything goes according to plan, which we uh are confident that we will, uh, we'll be able to serve uh 300 uh plus lives uh per month.

Um and one thing that uh I'll uh say here is that uh even with this, we're looking at just UCSD emergency department uh data.

Um our partner organizations, uh Script Sharp, et cetera, um they also face this.

Um and our hope is that uh whatever we do could become a blueprint and a model that could be expanded to other parts of the the county and hopefully uh across the state.

That's wonderful.

I I really appreciate you doing this.

Um let us go onward and upward, and I w I want to say I gotta say one more thing about our chair.

She and I, and with her leadership, we made a conservation law, an ordinance for the city, so that if someone was psychologically ill or addicted, but have these kind of problems where they weren't dealing in reality.

Uh we could uh give people a tool by which they could go to a court and ask for help to get the person treated.

And uh we did that a year before the state law and a year before the county law, maybe two years before the county.

But we are not a health and human services person.

I mean, the city is not.

We do not have that.

That is up to the county.

The county has the Department of Health and Human Services, and we need the county to step up and help us to get the courts that will handle these cases, and the people who are trained to be the guardianships if necessary, if the sick person doesn't have a family to help them, and to appoint that person then to oversee to make sure that these people who are ill can use these transitional care methods to get well and be well and stay well.

And so it this is one reason I ran for office, because obviously our society needs some help with these kind of things.

It was easier in the days when my sister-in-law was schizophrenic, and we could have her go to the hospital.

We could go to the judge and say, my husband went to the judge and said, please help my sister, and he put her in the hospital.

You can't do that nowadays.

However, with the laws that we passed, you can in this city, in this county.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna be quiet and just beg any public who is listening, call the county, call your supervisors, ask them, please get that Department of Health and Human Services up to modern times.

Let's use our tools that we have passed in law so that we can help these people more.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, uh Counselor Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you for your leadership uh on this issue.

I mean, this is a program that ultimately helps all San Diegans uh and it is uh uh a result of your initiative.

So thank you for bringing this forward.

Uh thank you to Councilmember Campbell uh for sharing some additional context on how this these issues have evolved since you were a full-time practitioner and the importance of addressing some of these issues holistically.

And of course, thank you to UCSD.

Really appreciate your implementation of this.

You referenced people experiencing homelessness a few times.

I would imagine, well, I mean, I'll ask the question.

Most of the people who are enrolled in this program who are impacted are people who are experiencing homelessness.

Is that what you're seeing?

Yes, significant portion have that.

And we we have no judgment on this.

And when I talk to our residents and our fellows all the time, you know, imagine if you were unhoused and you don't have a roof over your head and you haven't you don't know where the next food is going to come from, et cetera, et cetera.

Um and if you had access to something that would take some of that pain points away, even if it's something called fentanyl, uh, would you take it?

Um the answer is probably going to be yes.

Um this is the the some of the choices that our federal citizens are facing every day, every night.

Um so when when these patients come to our ED, these are challenging patients.

Um at times uh their desperation uh becomes almost panic for them to seek help.

Um traditional uh uh pathophysiological approach of treatment where a physician says stop it or just take this and this will go away.

That's not sufficient.

Uh it's not humanistic, um, and you have to really engage with them at where they are uh in the process.

And quite frankly, uh that's not uh something that only physicians should be doing, uh, and it requires social work, uh, nurses, uh, even front desk staff.

Um, and and so when you bring those uh elements together and really create a team-based approach, uh then you could help them.

You know, is it housing issue?

Is it a food security issue, is it clothing issue, is it personal safety issue, you know, what is it?

Um and so we try to get to the heart of that.

And so if someone is using and and is because they've been traumatized because they've been assaulted in the streets.

Okay, then we have to approach that differently.

Um is it because they um haven't been able to get uh uh get on Medical, for example, we help them with that.

Um is it that they don't have transportation means so they could get to their next appointment, then we help them with that.

So all of those elements are in play.

Um and so it's not a simple matter of just saying take this pill.

Um and that's extremely important for us because we understand that that when you don't handle and and and talk to those patients about those other issues, sometimes pill just isn't going to cut it.

Um and so that's why we like uh the way uh this program has been designed to really be holistic and also bring a lot of different team members together.

I appreciate your articulating that because in so many different aspects of homelessness uh there's no one size fits all solution.

Um everybody who is experiencing homelessness falls into homelessness due to their own circumstances, that everybody's path out of homelessness uh is in many cases unique.

Um there's no question a lot of people um become addicted while they're on the streets simply due to the trauma that they experience uh when they're experiencing homelessness.

But working with the population of people who are experiencing homelessness really benefits the entire city because uh everybody wants to uh help people who are experiencing homelessness get back on their feet.

Uh and if we're able to help them do that through a program like this, uh that certainly benefits the individual uh who can uh get uh past the addiction, it certainly benefits uh the community in a number of ways.

I mean, it it frees up capacity at the emergency rooms so that everybody can get uh treatment more quickly.

So this uh has a ripple effect of benefits, and I just wanted to acknowledge that and thank you again for uh your work on this.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, and thank you to my colleagues for fantastic comments and questions, and thank you to Dr.

Co.

for your leadership.

You know, as a deputy city attorney before I ran for office, I got to work with our former city attorney Mara Elliott to file lawsuits against the opioid companies for the damage that they have done to Americans and causing this this crisis we have on our streets.

And when we got the funding, we realized that we needed to do very important work to figure out how to how to use it and not waste this money.

I mean, the scale of this crisis is enormous.

We may not be thinking about it so much right now because in our world of social media and quick news clips, these things can come and go.

But the amount of money that they're going to be paying out for the hundreds of thousands of people who have died of opioid overdoses is enormous.

Last year, over 80,000 people again in America died of opioid overdose.

Walmart is going to be paying up to three billion over six years.

CBS will be paying five billion dollars.

Walgreens will be paying 5.5 billion dollars.

Manufacturers, Teva and Allergan are going to pay a collective six billion dollars.

And this is just some of the settlements.

We're waiting for Purdue Pharma to still settle its case for the original oxycott and it put on the market and told everyone it was not addictive.

I mean, the scale of the crisis, we see it on our streets every day.

Council Member Whitburn has the hardest hit district, but this affects house people too.

And the disconnect we saw when trying to help people addicted to opioids and overdosing was that what happened inside hospitals and what happened on the streets were completely disconnected.

We had incredible teams of home homeless outreach folks going out trying to talk to people, get treatment, but our firefighters, our EMS providers, our police officers would pick them up and take them to the ER and hand them off.

And the ERs would do the best they could.

The doctors would do the best they could to revive people, but then send them back and down into the streets to be once again contacted by separate providers and homeless outreach teams.

And it just became this revolving door of overdose.

And we realized the best and most precise moment to help people is when they survive that overdose and they wake up in that ER bed.

That's when we needed to intervene.

And so I was so honored to get to work with UCSD Health.

This really was a brainchild of Dr.

Coe, and use our settlement money instead.

This honestly is this the county of San Diego, it is their responsibility to provide substance abuse substance use treatment and mental health services, but the county has not been doing that.

And so we decided to step in and partner directly with UCSD Health and making sure you have someone who can follow that person back to the street, get them the bus ride they need to their next treatment center, call and make appointments at the treatment centers, get the Medicaid assistance treatment, and so that now the street and the hospitals are coordinated.

Same thing people in their homes and the hospitals are coordinated, and the treatment follows you no matter where you go.

It was that missing link that we needed.

So we hired social workers to be in the Yars.

We hired folks to be in the Rs to do this work, to assist the doctors, assist the patients, and it's working very well.

And I'm so honored that we're getting to be one of the pilot programs to help save people's lives.

There's going to be people at the table at Thanksgiving dinner in a few months because of this program.

And so I do have one question about the ability of medicated assisted treatment.

You know, we think see things like Saboxon and others.

Are we able to link that better through this program or how is that working?

Yeah, um this is uh these are the the medication assistance treatments is uh almost a game changer uh in this area.

Um and this kind of harkens back to um if if someone is addicted to these substances, how do you replace that?

Um and it it's and and how do you replace it without getting the patients hooked to yet another agent?

Um and so the the promise of medications to treatment is uh at the same time a harm reduction approach, um uh life-saving approach, uh, but also a bridge, if you will, to the next phase of treatment, which is long-term recovery without having to take medications, other such things.

Um and so we see a lot of promise in this.

Um the uh any time a treatment modality comes into the picture, uh, what happens is it gets utilized in different ways by different providers, um, uh different treatment uh oriented individuals, things like that.

What you really want is a benchmarking of how these agents should be used so that we understand and figure out exactly what dosing and what intervals they should be dosed, et cetera, and come up with policy and procedures that could be applied population-wide.

Um this way uh you could protect against um over usage uh versus underusage.

And so we call it optimized use of these medications.

Um by tr by allowing uh our folks to not only engage within our hospital setting but also seeing what's out there, uh, we'll be able to gather data and really tr determine what medications are actually being applied, because there's several of these.

Um and to determine what doses are actually optimally working, um, and how do we help our community organizations to come up with their own protocols?

Um we're we're publicly funded university.

I mean, you know, everything that we do is uh freely available, right?

And we want to get that information out there.

Um there's no trademarking of this stuff.

I mean, and so we're here to support our community.

Um, our models um uh the way we're going to create our our medication protocols and paradigms will be freely available to you know uh any other health system, any uh community-based organizations, et cetera, and you know um all they have to do is ask.

Um, and so we're going to create all of that and help uh different organizations set up different policies and procedures, um, and so really uh help our uh medical community engage in this and and really have that support that they need.

That's why you know one of the uh new folks we're gonna be bringing on is a uh specifically trained psych pharmacist.

And so the pharmacist will be able to consult with physicians, there's practitioners, uh physician assistants, etc.

etc.

Uh, to make sure that if they have a question about how do we use this medication, does this interact with any other medications that they're on, our folks would be there to answer those questions for them.

Um and this is a consultative model that's never been done uh before, and and this is going to be agnostic as to is this our patient or not, right?

Um at the end of the day, they're all our patients.

Um, and so we're going to provide those services.

Um, and and this really would not have happened without your leadership and also the support from the city.

And so we're we're thrilled to be part of this.

Um as I mentioned, you know, we're also putting our resources into this uh to make sure that this is a a share of responsibility.

So I appreciate that all of you.

Fantastic.

I I really appreciate this.

Um, I read a headline a few years ago about a an ER doctor who would write letters back to family practitioners saying your patient just overdosed and died in my emergency room.

Did you know the opioids you prescribe them eventually killed them?

Because the prescribing physician often doesn't realize that their patient has died because they're not the one trying to do CPR in the ER.

And so doctors and ERs were slowly starting to connect the dots.

And I just really appreciate that you have taken the time to connect the treatment systems, you know, breaking down the silos, making sure someone is holistically helped and we follow them out of the ER and provide the help they need on the street or in the home, and we continue to follow up with them to get them treatment.

It's just this is the game changer that we've needed, and I'm so honored that UCSD Health is partnering with the city.

I'm very proud of my uh colleagues too.

Thank you for your unanimous support for this item at the budget.

You know, this is non-general fund item, so it didn't impact, but it's gonna impact our general fund because it's gonna help people get off the street and out of this revolving door.

So I just want to thank you for this good news today.

We need more of this uh in UCSD Health.

Anytime you I want to partner, our door is open.

We've loved working with you, and thank you for everything.

All right, that brings oh uh Dr.

Can we have one more thing?

Real quick, there are many family doctors, I was one of them, primary care doctors, internists, etc., who would not fall for that messages from the drug companies.

I lost a few patients because I would not give them drugs that were addictive.

So you know, and I think nowadays it's much better with especially in the state of California, we have special training so that the physicians, as they learn how to be a physician, understand uh more about not going overboard with those addictive types of substances.

But I just want to assure you that there are many doctors out there who never fell for it, and uh and always followed a good path to try to help their patients.

And uh also I don't I yeah, I didn't mean to harp so much on the new medications, so much better than what I had 45 years ago.

So I I did mention them because they are so helpful in the treatment process, but the you're absolutely right.

The problem is individual.

Every single person has a story of their life, and we have to go back to that story to figure out how to help them so that they can be more successful in life.

And so that's why the intervention and the caring is so important, so we can get their whole story and help them.

So I really appreciate thank you so much.

I just can't get over all the wonderful things that have happened in medicine in 45 years.

I just feel so honored to be in the profession, and I wish I weren't so older.

I'd I'd go over and help you in in the ERs.

Sorry.

Well, thank you very much, and thank you for your presentation, and appreciate you.

And this brings us to the end of item four, which is an informational item.

So no motion is required.

Now we will move back to our discussion item.

Agenda item three.

Uh, Sarah, please introduce it.

Item three.

Thank you, Chair von Wilbert.

Item number three, proposed response to grand jury report.

Gas lamp enforcement team needs help from the community.

If you're watching on City TV, the live stream online, you'd like to call into the meeting to speak, please dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 161-217-1797 pound.

Chair.

Thank you very much.

We'll have our presenters settle in.

Please introduce yourself and let us know how much time you'll need.

Oh mic's not on.

Okay, there we go.

Um thank you and good morning, Chair Von Wilbert, members of the committee.

I'm Aaron Noel with the Office of the IVA, and uh Bakou is also from our office is also going to be presenting with me today.

Um we need about eight minutes for our presentation.

Please proceed.

Okay.

Okay.

Um so on May 27, 2025, the San Diego County Grand Jury filed a report titled The Gas Lamp Enforcement Team Needs the Community's Help.

This report outlines concerns about public safety, staffing shortages, and community trust in the gas lamp quarter, including a call for expanded daytime bicycle patrols and enhanced community engagement.

Per the grand jury report, the mayor and council are required to provide comments to the presiding judge of the San Diego Superior Court on the applicable findings and recommendations within 90 days.

However, the council president's office requested and received an extension for the response to November 21st, 2025.

The proposed joint mayor oral and council response covers the three findings and five recommendations applicable to the City of San Diego, and is provided as attachment one to the IBA report 2529.

One recommendation, which is recommendation number five, is directed to the mayor and city council.

The remaining findings and recommendations are directed to the mayor.

For this grand jury report, various departments assisted the IBA in the development of the proposed council response, including compliance, San Diego Police Department, City Attorney's Office, and the Mayor's Office.

And staff are here and available to address any questions.

Per Penal Code 93305.

In responding to each grand jury finding, the city is required to either agree with the finding, disagree wholly or partially with the finding.

Responses to grand jury recommendations must indicate that the recommendation has been implemented, has not yet been implemented, but will be in the future, requires further analysis, or will not be implemented because it is not warranted or is not reasonable.

Explanations for responses are requested when applicable.

While only recommendation five requires a joint council and mayoral response to provide some context, we are providing a brief summary of the draft response of those findings and recommendations that are directed to the mayor.

So finding one is building confidence in public safety in the gas lamp requires a concerted effort by day and nighttime gas lamp enforcement teams.

The proposed response is that the mayor agrees, and the San Diego Police Department emphasizes a multi-pronged approach, including the downtown response team, homeless outreach teams, and the reinstated gas lamp walking team to enhance visibility and engagement.

Finding two by adhering to the neighborhood policing policy and patrolling on bicycles during daylight hours, the gas lamp enforcement team has the opportunity through community outreach to build the types of relationships with residents, visitors, and businesses that lead to crime reduction and trust in law enforcement.

The proposed response, uh the mayor disagrees in part, while uh the San Diego Police Department supports community outreach.

It notes operational limitation of bike patrols, for example, limited emergency response capacity and equipment access, and stresses the need to balance visibility with readiness.

Now I'll pass it off to Pakou to discuss the third and final finding as well as responses to the five recommendations.

Thanks, Erin.

So the grand jury's last finding, finding three was that the rise in crime combined with SDPD staff shortages make it even more critical for SDPD to garner the help of community members in reducing crime in the gas lamp quarter.

The mayor agrees with this finding and in the in the proposed response highlights SDPD's ongoing commitment to community policing, including regular engagement with residents, businesses, and stakeholders.

Next slide, please.

Moving on to the mayor's response to recommendations one through four.

Uh again, these are directed to the mayor only.

So starting with recommendation one, which is to treat staff shortages as an opportunity to be creative and resourceful, and thereby more effective with existing staff levels.

The mayor's response states that this has been implemented.

SDPD has created the downtown response team and reinstated the gas lamp walking team using data-driven deployment to maximize impact despite limited staffing.

Recommendation two is to maximize the use of officers patrolling on bicycles in the gas lamp to include a day shift at least five days a week and on weekends and holidays to provide a highly visible and more effective police presence.

The mayor states that this will not be implemented and SDPD sites current staffing constraints and long um long emergency response times as barriers to expanding full-time bike patrols.

Recommendation three is to mandate interpersonal skills training for the gas lamp enforcement team with an emphasis on application of SDPD's existing neighborhood policing guidelines.

SDPD provides extensive training, including de-escalation, communication, and equity focused leadership development with additional team-specific training for the gas lamp unit.

Recommendation four is for SDPD to direct the gas lamp enforcement team to build trust by being more approachable and available to gas lamp quarter residents, visitors, and business owners in order to deter and prevent crime.

SDPD has established internal meetings, identified senior officials, excuse me, senior officers for leadership, and continues to prioritize community engagement.

And finally, we come to recommendation five, which again is the only recommendation that's directed to both the mayor and council.

Recommendation five states that the city should appropriate additional funding and resources to SDPD to maximize the number of officers patrolling on bicycles in the gas lamp to include a day ship a day shift five days a week and on weekends and holidays.

The proposed mayoral and council joint response is that this recommendation will not be implemented because it is not reasonable.

SDPD has more than 200 sworn vacancies for positions that are already budgeted, and so additional funding for new officers cannot be justified until those vacancies are filled.

Whenever that happens to occur, future funding requests will be considered by the mayor and council through the annual budget process along with all other citywide needs and priorities.

Otherwise, the council and mayor will send separate responses.

Thank you very much.

That concludes our presentation.

All right, thank you very much.

Um Sarah, please take any public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We've received two speakers' lips here in chambers.

Cesar Javier, you have been seated time by Parita Javier.

Each speaker will have one minute, so I will place two minutes on the clock for you to manage to speak to item three.

Something is wrong.

It's not the jury that is meant here, but rather this one.

Sunju's number one principle of war, indirectness.

Uncle some wanted you to solve the issues.

This one.

People are hurt.

People are neglected.

And Uncle Sam wanted you to do something.

And there are resources.

Revenues that are collected by the Treasury Office, plus your kickbox.

We have to use that from that figure to zero.

That's the principle, right?

Public servant administration course, national university of life.

Spend our resources to zero for public service.

You invested money to get more money.

That's good.

If you use that for public service.

But I think thank you for your concluding remark.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment for item number three.

Each speaker will have one minute.

We'll begin with testimony, phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

Well, with one minute in my living downtown near the gas lamp for almost 19 years, it isn't gonna work.

So I'm gonna spread this out.

I'm just gonna I had lots of comments, but I'm gonna try to gather together a few, and then I'm gonna spread this out through different meetings.

So I love the gas lamp.

I'm still healing from the loss of the promenade.

And when I read the grand jury report with the IBA report, I was stunned because maybe I was not looking.

Maybe I had my eyes covered with a veil and I didn't see the truth.

I don't know.

I'm still trying to figure out this grand jury report.

So I'll have other I'll I'll have layers of this to share with you, and I'll share with you my experience of the gas lamp.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time has expired.

Thank you.

And Chair seeing another hands in the queue.

This concludes testimony for item number three.

Thank you very much.

And I'll now turn over to my colleagues, beginning with Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Uh let me start by thanking the grand jury for uh the work it did and putting together this report.

Uh thank the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst for uh the work in uh compiling uh and analyzing the response and of course uh a big thank you to uh the San Diego Police Department, um the top leadership uh with us here in the room uh this morning uh for all the uh efforts citywide, but in this case uh particular to the gas lamp quarter.

The gas lamp is one of the city's most iconic neighborhoods, uh has such a rich history, a vibrant atmosphere.

Uh it is a cultural and entertainment hub for our city.

Uh it attracts tens of thousands of people from around the world who thoroughly enjoy it, but uh uh at times it could face real challenges, uh, particularly on weekend nights.

Um this report makes clear, but a lot of people know that uh the vast majority of gas land businesses operate responsibly uh and help to create the welcoming environment that we are nurturing downtown.

Uh but unfortunately uh there are bad actors.

Uh and we have a few bad actors in the gas lamp who consistently overserve, uh, and that fuels all kinds of incidents that undermine safety and erode public trust.

Uh we cannot allow three or four reckless bars to put the reputation of an entire neighborhood at risk.

Um alcoholic beverage control has to step up its enforcement of liquor laws to hold these businesses accountable.

Uh I want to thank uh Chief Wall, thank our captain, uh thank uh SDPD as a department for being proactive in the face of the staffing shortages that we're experiencing.

I mean, we've got a new downtown response team, uh, we've got a reinstated gas lamp walking district that are smart, creative steps that uh give us more visible patrols on foot and on bike, and these efforts are uh already helping to build safety and confidence in the gas lamp.

Uh at the same time, the report is right in that the uh public safety can't rest entirely on nighttime enforcement.

We do need to grow daytime attractions that make the gas lamp a destination for everyone, including families.

Uh the recent opening of the Museum of Illusions uh is a great start.

Uh but we need more like that.

Uh I'm encouraged by the progress that we're making downtown, but more activation uh serves to benefit the economy also serves to benefit public safety.

Um again, we must continue to hold our problem bars accountable.

Uh we have to support our police, increase staffing, uh, and broaden the gas lamp experience beyond just the nightlife, and that is how we will continue to make the gas lamp a world class destination day and night.

Uh so uh I think that the responses to the grand jury report uh are right on target.

Uh certainly would love to see uh more daytime uh police staffing uh in the gas lamp, but uh with the vacancies that we currently have, uh we've got to get those filled first, and uh that has to be the top priority before we're uh gonna have the capacity to do that.

So uh I will make a motion to recommend that the full city council approve the proposed response to the grand jury report.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We have a motion and now to Council Campbell.

Thank you.

I first of all want to second the motion, and uh I also want to to thank the police department.

We have a wonderful police department.

They're doing so much with two little officers.

Uh God bless them.

And I I want to thank the city attorney's office and the IBA's office too, because they they help us and guide us so much and and are so good.

And I want to thank the mayor's office for you know taking everything that we need to do seriously and trying to help with it.

So we are uh we are working hard, all of us to try and make it better.

Um I just have one recommendation having moved here many, many years ago from a very cold city and having grown up in a very cold city, Denver, uh nine months of winter and three months of summer, which I loved when I was young, but it's too cold for me now.

So I I just want to say that San Diego is paradise in terms of many things, but especially the weather.

And so I really suggest that we do our um attempts at getting new officers for our city uh from officers who may already have experience.

Let us look to those very cold, horrible weather cities, and we all know them.

We can name them Chicago, New York, uh, even DC is having bad winter weather now with climate change.

Uh Pittsburgh, Buffalo, uh, Erie, Pennsylvania.

I mean, there's many, many.

And I really think that there are probably a bunch of people there who'd say, gosh, I wish I could live in San Diego.

I thought that for 30 years before we got the chance to move here.

So I'm so grateful that I'm here, and I'm grateful to you for all you do.

I'm wondering if these officers we have here are uh would you like to is there anything you'd like to add about how we can do this as okay?

So the extra officers would be a great idea if we only had the money to pay for it.

So um we are recruiting, but I suggest we try recruiting if we're not in those very cold weather cities in the winter.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

We have a motion and a second.

I too want to thank the IBA for your work on responding to the grand jury.

Um thank you, of course, to the volunteers who make up the grand jury who are very uh interested in making sure that we work well as a city, and I also think these responses uh make are very reasonable and make sense.

I too would love to be able to fill the vacancies and hire more uh folks.

We are recruiting at SDPD, and I want to thank everyone who works in the downtown gas lamp team.

Uh it's wonderful, it's incredibly vibrant area of San Diego.

Tourists love it when they come here.

I want to thank our one of our predecessors, Tom Hom, who really works to make the gas lamp the international destination that it is.

Um I love it.

I love walking down there and seeing it, and I do agree with Council Member Whitburn that there are a few actors who make it hard for everybody.

I mean, alcohol late at night with people is never a good combination with people who want to be bad actors.

And so I do know that our SDPD officers who are there have a very wonderful relationship with the community and then have to deal with some pretty bad actors who make bad decisions around 2 a.m.

when bar break is.

Uh so I also ask the public to step up and uh be responsible as well.

You know, come to C and Diego.

We love having you here, and um be responsible in your actions and your choices too, because uh we want everyone to have a good time.

So commander, do you want to add anything else or uh anything else that we could any ways that the public could support you and support the team downtown?

Um you you came all the way down here, so we'd be happy to hear anything you want to add.

Thank you, madam chair, members of council.

Um I name's Adam Shark.

I'm the commander for the South Part of the City of San Diego's patrol operations with me as Captain Ryan Hallaghan, current captain of Central Division.

I'm the former captain of Central Division.

Uh, just thank you for the support and the kind words about the gas lamp enforcement team.

Lieutenant Jeff Decessary, Sergeant Justin Smith, Sergeant Angela Bull are the supervisors for that team, and they have very difficult work every weekend when things get exceptionally busy down there.

Uh Sergeant Amend Jimenez is the downtown response team sergeant during the daytime.

We have two officers who work on the walking team now, and they're doing their very best to make the gas lamp a place that we can be proud of, that our residents can enjoy, and that our visitors can see as uh one of the gems of our city.

So thank you for the continued support, the positive feedback.

We very much appreciate it as we continue to recruit, retain, and try and make the downtown a safer place to be.

Thank you.

And I and I appreciate the unique ability to, you know, we need obviously the patrol cars to be there because if someone unfortunately would have to be apprehended, you have you would have an ability to take someone to custody.

It's also great though that that uh officers are on foot and on bikes because the gas lamp is such a pedestrian-friendly area, it makes it so much more accessible to directly reach out to officers and talk to them.

And so I appreciate the different responses you have and the presence you have on the street and the proactive policing to prevent crime and make sure everyone's safe.

So we appreciate you very much.

And uh, we're working on getting more funding for everyone, parks, libraries, uh, fire department as well.

So we appreciate you.

And with that, I think we are uh we have a motion and a second, so we will vote on this item.

Chair item number three passes unanimously 30 with Vice Chair Campio absent.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

That brings us to our last item today, which is an informational agenda item number five.

Sarah, please introduce item five.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number five is SDGNE's wildfire safety and public safety power shutoff preparedness.

If you're watching on City TV, the live stream online, you'd like to dial into the meeting to speak, please call 1669-2545252, inputting webinar ID 161-217-1797 pound.

Chair.

Thank you.

Good morning.

We'll let our presenters settle in.

Please introduce yourselves, and let us know how much time you'll need.

Oh turn on the mic.

Thank you, Chair.

Appreciate it.

Um, my name is Bernadette Buckowitz.

I'm the senior public affairs manager at San Diego Gas and Electric, and I'm here with Caitlin Haley, also with SDG and E.

And we will need 10 minutes.

Okay, please proceed.

Great.

I'd like to begin on reflecting on what we've experienced earlier this year.

In December and January, SDG had to implement multiple public safety power shutoffs.

That's what PSPS you see here.

Um, and uh across our service territory.

For context, PSPS events are pro-active power shutoffs initiated to reduce the risk of wildfire ignition.

These decisions are not made lightly.

Uh they're based on a combination of factors, uh, including what wind speed, humidity, vegetation moisture, red flag warnings, and real-time field operations.

Um during this these winter months, these conditions aligned in a way we haven't seen in years, resulting in some of the largest and longest PSPS events we've ever had to implement.

We understand that losing power is disruptive, and if it affects homes, businesses, daily routines.

Um, but in those extreme conditions, temporarily shutting off power can be the difference between preventing fire and facing a devastating wildfire.

SCGE's wildfire safety commitments are formally outlined in the franchise energy cooperation agreement with the city of San Diego.

Uh this includes providing access to our weather and camera network deployed across the region to monitor potential fire threats.

Wildfire risk has historically been concentrated in the eastern parts of the county.

For example, Chair, I know you're an HFTD, high fire threat district.

Um, but and that is where most large fires ignite and move toward our city, but recent data shows a growing concern in coastal canyons, including Mission Valley, uh to improve situational awareness in these areas.

To improve situational awareness in these areas, SDG and SEGE installed a fuel moisture sensor in Mission Valley and actively participates in San Diego's fire rescue canyon fire drills, including a wildland fire simulation this past April.

This year we've seen an increase in canyon fire activity.

As you can see here on the table, our helicopters have responded by deploying thousands of gallons of water to help contain these incidents.

And these helicopters have responded to the fires listed in the table provided, and their flight patterns are shown on the images to the right.

So as you can see, Palmarado Road, Mission Valley was one that did impact some structures as well as the Bernardo fire, which you can see there is the biggest and required the most gallons dropped.

I think our coordination really is what I'm most proud of.

Just yesterday we had Chief Logan, Chief Meachum, and 211 executive BP Bill York at our emergency operations center, speaking to the gravity of this fire season.

I think Chief Meacham said it best.

What once was a fire season has now become a fire year.

I will now turn it over to Caitlin to take a deeper dive into our weather outlook for this year.

Thank you.

Can you flip that?

There we go.

So council members, as you know, but the public might not be aware, SDGE has its own meteorology team with a very high-tech and sophisticated weather awareness system.

And this helps us track weather as it relates to impacts on the grid and how that might affect our customers.

So I'm gonna walk you through a little bit of the situational awareness right now as it pertains to the weather.

You can leave it on this side.

These two maps demonstrate the moisture situation in the region over the last two years.

And on the left, you'll see the percentage of average precipitation from October of last year to the present.

And as you can see, Southern California is very dry.

The summer monsoonal precipitation has been, as the slide states, a nothing burger despite the rain that we've experienced over the last 24 hours.

And the map on the right shows the average temperature.

You can see that inland areas have been a lot warmer than an average year, and coastal areas for the most part have benefited slightly from cooler ocean temperatures, but are also quite warm.

Thank you.

Let's talk about drought status.

It's not a foreign concept for us in San Diego or California.

A year of little rainfall and warmer than average temperatures puts many areas of the region in an extreme drought category.

That's the red indicated on the map.

And we you can really see year over year last year's drought conditions on the left, this year's drought conditions on the right, a dry year with warm temperatures can really make quite a bit of difference when it comes to safety.

Now looking forward, uh the seasonal outlook for fall and winter is warm weather with about average chances of rain.

Conditions are aligning for a potentially very challenging season.

These two maps are from NOAA.

On the left is the temperature outlook.

Again, it's showing probability for above average temperatures, and on the right is chances of precipitation.

Um it's showing that precipitation could go either way at this point.

We can't count on rainfall.

Um with high temperatures, drought conditions, no promise of rainfall, we're looking at high fire potential in the fall and winter.

The risk will be above normal in inland areas starting right now, this month.

We're currently above normal in inland areas.

Um starting next month, this expands to the rest of our service territory.

We all saw in LA earlier this year that wildfire is not sequestered to the backcountry.

Um coastal canyons and urban areas are also high at risk.

And after a year of warm weather and dry conditions, the grasses that we typically see are critically dry and very susceptible to ignition.

Our fire potential index, FPI.

Um, this is a data set that we share with all of our public safety partners on a daily basis, and you'll see a sample of that in in just a minute.

Our FPI shows elevated conditions inland through winter and elevated conditions for coastal areas with the possible with any possible heat waves that might occur.

Also, should we have Santa Ana winds, I should say if and when we have Santa Ana winds, that could trigger an extreme fire potential.

Thank you.

And I'll just add, we are seeing those winds out in the east get as high as 100 miles per hour.

So our infrastructure, you know, built quite some time ago was not built for that kind of weather event.

We are seeing extreme winds.

So that fire potential index that Caitlin was just speaking to is here on the right of the slide.

As she mentioned, this is sent to San Diego Fire Rescue and all our public safety partners daily.

Again, things like weather data, fuel conditions, topography, even satellite data is used to see how much greenness we see in the vegetation, soil soil moisture, and even solar radiation.

Historical fire data is also used to train on past fire incidents to forecast future risk.

So normal conditions is something that we would have received in the last few days.

That's anywhere 11 and below on our fire potential index, and usually sent in green.

But as you can see here, over the next few months, we are anticipating an elevated levels from 12 to 13 and even up to 15 and 16 under extreme conditions.

That is kind of what sets us looking at future weather data.

We use AI modeling and meteorologist team to determine about seven to ten days out to forecast a potential PSPS event, red flag conditions, meteorology.

They ask themselves whether or not they should get our emergency on-duty team together to have that small operations group proceed with activation.

There is a difference between that PSPS protocol beginning and the emergency operations center actually activating.

So we do not actually activate that operations center until we are closer to the event.

And we will dive into that timeline.

So as you can see, we're monitoring seven to ten days out.

Our meteorologist and our emergency operations team is working closely with all of our safety partners to ensure they're aware of what's coming.

And then as you can see here, two or three days out, that's when customers are getting notified.

Folks are starting to ensure that they're aware of what's going on.

I also want to point you to the latter half of this.

So I think what a lot of folks don't understand is oh, the winds have died down.

Why don't I see my power coming back on immediately?

It's because we have to physically go out and check these lines.

There are things that could have blown into the lines, and we need to ensure that those are safe to turn on.

So that may be why there is a few hour delay between the time that we see those winds die down and activation of the power coming back on.

If I did not mention, I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone to visit myenergycenter.com and ensure your contact information is up to date.

This is how SDGE will notify everyone about public safety power shutoffs and if they're forecasted in your area.

We'll actually be sending out a test notification next week, so now's a great time to confirm your details.

Secondly, I want to encourage you all to download alerts by SDG app, which has real-time notifications about potential PSPS, and you don't need an SDG account to use the app, just an address.

And it's available on iPhone and Android devices.

Lastly, for you all in this room, I think the watch duty app may also be helpful.

It sends alerts when our camera system developed in partnership with UCSD, detects a smoke plume anywhere in the county.

It provides a real-time updates on fire spread, emergency response activity, and live images from the scene.

This tool is especially valuable for community leaders like yourself for situational awareness during fast-moving wildfire events.

So these are the notifications that I was speaking to that are required of us in the emergency operations center.

So Caitlin, myself, or somebody from our RPA team will actually be on duty when we activate the emergency operations center.

It is a 24-hour activation.

So somebody will always be made available to your constituents to make sure that we're responding to them in a timely manner and that they're not confused about what's happening and how they can be prepared.

So that's the 48 hours you see there before turnoff.

Another 24.

And to be honest, what ends up happening is we end up doing probably every about 12 hours.

It's just something our team thinks, you know, folks want to hear from you, they want to know what's going on, they want the updates.

And then again, on the restoration back end, you see, you know, the power safety inspections happen and then one to four hours of restoration there.

I'll turn it back to Gaitlin.

Thank you.

And because we are expecting that communities that might have never experienced a PSPS before might get those notifications, might be subject to uh having their power shut off this year given the weather conditions.

We want to ensure that folks know what resources are available to them in the case that the power is shut off.

Most notably, I I want to talk about our customers who may rely on power for medical or other support purposes.

Um these are our access and functional needs or AFN customers.

You can enroll in AFN services to receive special assistance from SDGE.

It's a self-ident identifying process.

You just visit our website, and uh you can also receive special assistance during a PSPS event.

There are a number number of resources available to support AFN customers, including hotel stays, accessible transportation, food support, emergency kit items, wellness checks, backup power in the form of batteries or generators.

And we have 11 facilities that serve as community resource centers in the high fire threat district if a PSPS is activated in these communities.

We have the ability to help support pets, including larger animals like horses, and we work with 211 in San Diego and United Way in Orange County to help connect all customers to resources and direct support from over a thousand organizations, as Bernadette mentioned, every hour of every day, 24-7, 365 in over 200 languages.

And I apologize, Chair, just one more slide, so we'll just need two more minutes.

What decides for us to go into PSPS has not changed.

I do want to make that clear.

It's that the conditions are such that we are anticipating folks to experience PSPS who have not experienced PSPS in the past.

And that's why we're here today.

SCGNE is preparing year-round to reduce fire wildfire risk and minimize the need for PSPS, though.

So key mitigation efforts include grid hardening, uh, covered conductors.

So when things like branches, trees, um, umbrellas do hit our lines, that those aren't causing catastrophic wildfires.

So the hardening of the infrastructure, many of you have probably heard from me on your wood-to-steel replacement projects of transition lines in your districts.

You know, those are very strategically planned on our behalf.

Um, expanding our net uh our network of over 200 weather stations and high definition fire cameras to provide real-time data to support faster and smarter decision making.

Those images that are provided on the weather app, the uh watch duty app that I mentioned before, those are through our partnership with UCSD.

Those are the images from our cameras.

Using also advanced inspection technologies, assess overhead infrastructure, so things like drones, um, and reduce the likelihood that PSPS would have would impact your constituents.

So we obviously want to lessen that impact.

Another way that we're lessening that impact is actually sectionalizing enhancement programs.

So we install switches that allow us to isolate high-risk areas, uh, helping limit the scope of de-energization.

So instead of shutting off, you know, an entire community, we are able to uh get down to certain streets that may be impacted.

Our wildfire team and meteorologists are also using sophisticated risk modeling and analytics to identify and prioritize areas most vulnerable to ignition.

Um again, we're very committed to the public safety and mis minimizing disruption.

Uh, as council members, your partnership is essential in helping constituents understand those risks and prepare accordingly.

So again, please encourage them to update their information information in my energy center.com.

Uh, download the SDG and E Alerts app, the watch duty app, and together we can ensure San Diego is better prepared, better informed, and more resilient to face wildfire threats.

Thank you.

That is all.

All right, thank you very much.

Uh we'll now take any public comment on this item.

Thank you, Chair.

We've received two slips here in chambers, so Parita Javier and Cesar Javier.

If you can please approach the lectern.

Each speaker will have one minute, and Preda Javier has ceded her time to Caesar, so I will place two minutes on the clock.

Cesar and Purita.

We are prepared locally because mandated this, Dr.

Campbell.

Are you prepared?

Where is the mayor?

Excuse me, sir.

Where's the mayor?

We are not prepared.

This is a serious matter.

This is seasonal.

Mom, could we have discount for the season?

So that we can buy materials to defend ourselves and our neighbors.

We planted trees, more than five trees.

Where is the rebate?

The police is ready, the fire is ready, water authorities are they ready to produce more water?

And thank you for coming.

I think you have a big stipend here coming over.

You are rich, wealthy.

Asparto preparedness, mom chair, as part of power preparedness right in our neighborhood, which is a residential community.

You're not congested.

Sergeant's like.

Footnote seven.

Yeah.

Dr.

Campbell.

35 more seconds.

This is a mandate.

Preparedness because of our climate character in California.

What have we done?

We need more water, right?

And it's expensive.

Why?

That's part of preparedness.

Are we ready for more water?

Attorney.

Please contribute your input here.

Is it a stable case or criminal case?

The mayor is killing us.

Thank you for those concluding remarks.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment for item number five.

We'll begin testimony with phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six, and you will have one minute.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

You get five stars for your work on the wildfire uh issue.

Thank you, thank you.

So safety is the operative word with wildfires shut off.

Good work on that.

Thank you for the situational awareness.

Thank you for the weather update centers of SDG and E.

Love the drone use by the SDPD.

Uh expand that and do more in other areas along that area.

Uh public preparedness and public resilientness.

Those are great.

Hey, FDG and E heads up.

You get five stars with fire uh wildlife uh work.

Please give a five-star performance in other areas of your partnership with all the people of San Diego.

Uh thank you very much for listening to me today.

Love to thank you for providing your testimony.

And chair saying no other hands go up in the queue.

This concludes testimony for item five.

Thank you very much.

I'll turn it over to my colleagues for any comments or questions, beginning with Council Campbell.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, you guys, for the wonderful presentation.

It's really in depth talking about all that SDGE does to help prevent fire and to help fight it.

Yesterday I was honored to be a city representative on the San Diego River Conservancy, which you know is one of state uh four state river conservancies.

Um we gave out some grants yesterday, which is really fun.

It's always fun to be able to give out money.

And the Conservancy gave out many grants to the eastern part of our county and various parts within, also closer to us, um, to local uh mostly rural areas to help them uh be able to make more fire breaks, more roads for people if they have to evacuate, etc.

And it's just marvelous all the work that everyone is doing by working together as a team.

I know um 30 different fire districts that work together and meet often so that they can help each other out.

And I really appreciate our fire department.

Uh Chief Logan and and you guys, everybody involved in fighting fire, getting there so fast, responding so rapidly, so that we can make sure that fire doesn't spread.

And they have just done a marvelous job.

I love the the three examples that you showed us.

I know there's many, many more.

So all I can say is thank you so much.

This is such a good representation of pro public-private uh entities working together.

Uh your electric and gas company working for you, your government is working for you, and we're doing everything we can uh and and moving forward.

I I love to read that you're you're trying to underground certain areas of the transmission lines that are out there in the in the wild places uh to make sure that they don't start and spark fires, and I really appreciate that.

I know how terribly expensive and how difficult it is, and I really appreciate uh that you're doing that.

So thank you so much.

Thanks for coming.

All right, thank you very much.

I'll turn over to Council Whitburn.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Ms.

Budkowitz, Ms.

Haley, appreciate the presentation.

Um, and I appreciated uh some of your comments early in the presentation regarding the data that SDGE is collecting in regard to our urban canyons uh and uh certainly Mission Valley uh parts of the urban center of the city that I represent uh and uh that where we've seen a number of fires.

I mean, uh shortly after the urban fires in Los Angeles, we saw a series of smaller but nonetheless uh alarming fires uh here in District Three.

Uh many of them started uh around encampments.

Uh one of the reasons why I'm really working to reduce the number of encampments that are out there, but you get the combination of fire weather uh and uh flammable conditions and people living in canyons and on these slopes, uh, and that could be really dangerous.

Uh I was in the uh SDGE Fire Weather Control Center, I don't know the official name for it, but the the center there and uh just the it's so sophisticated.

Uh uh the the data that it gives you, and it was uh uh zooming in on some of the canyons in my district uh around Balboa Park, uh, and it was good to see that uh that data is readily available.

In terms of the public safety power shutoffs, I don't recall uh there being any of those here in District 3 that I remember.

Um have there been those shutoffs in the city of San Diego?

So we have had those in the city of San Diego.

Yes, I I believe uh Chair von Wilfert's district has been subject to some PSPS events as well as uh last year for the first time, some areas in district one.

Okay, okay, so the northern and uh that that part of the city, all right.

Um, and you were talking about uh some parts of the city could see these that haven't had them before.

Um is the urban core of the city an area that could be subject to these, or is that not likely, or what or does it just depend?

One of the the critical factors that impacts this year versus previous years is that um we have some transmission lines that might be subject to PSPS events.

If the power is shut off on a transmission line, it could be a variety of different communities that are downstream from that transmission line.

So when you think about it, the transmission lines are the highways and distribution lines are the city streets.

Um transmission lines could impact uh anyone downstream.

I appreciate that.

I think you know, for so many years we've been accustomed to thinking about wildfires and shutoffs being in the backcountry.

Uh but clearly that's not the case anymore.

And even in the urban heart of our city, this may be something that we want to at least be attuned to.

So thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

Um thank you very much.

And thank you for coming in today.

Uh this is a critically important discussion, and I know that all of us have you know harped on SCGE being critical over the rates, we'd still love lower rates.

Uh this is something STGD does do very well.

Um, if you have not toured their emergency operations center, I highly recommend that you do.

Um it's incredible to see the investment that SGGE has made since the 2007 Witch Creek fire, which was started by a power line and actually ended up burning down the house of my predecessor.

Uh the person who sat in this seat, Barbara Warden, the former city council member, she lost her home in that fire, as did hundreds of my residents in Rancho Bernardo and Mancho Pine Mosquitoes.

So while we've seen other utility companies not make a change, STGE certainly has.

I mean, we just saw the US Attorney General is um suing uh Southern Gas or Southern Edison up in LA for starting the Altadina fire.

How many times has PG and E been cited and actually criminally convicted for manslaughter for fires and they're not changing at the rapid pace that uh STG has.

And so thank you for investing also in the uh firehawks, the wildfire helicopters, that is hugely beneficial.

The sheriff's department and the county have too, and that's been a huge game changer, especially in the canyon fires.

We cannot get our firewrights down into these canyons between homes, and what we saw in Mission Valley, for example, or Fashion Valley, right between two sets of homes, it was both the ground crew but also the aerial ability to tackle that fire that was a game changer.

Same thing in La Jolla on the bluffs.

Calfire actually brought in their fixed wing for that.

However, we can't fly any of these apparatus if the winds get to you know 100 miles an hour and whatnot.

So while nobody likes public sour public safety power shutoffs because no one wants to lose their power, I do thank STG and E for being thoughtful in how we can prevent massive wildfires going forward, and I understand the need for them.

Um at the same time, there are residents who are going to be affected more than others by losing their power.

And so that has been a key component of well of this work.

And so I was really glad to see uh the slide showing that uh SGE will bring out generators to someone's home.

What if they have to be on a breathing apparatus or keep medication cold in the refrigerator?

Uh they can't afford to go days without power.

And um, same thing with the notifications.

You know, I've got notifications on my phone saying, hey, in Scripps Ranch, there might be a public safety power shutoff due to the winds.

I'm glad to be notified ahead of time.

You know, I have an elderly parent who now needs assistance, and so I'll be able to make sure we have that assistance.

So I just the communication has gotten better and better.

I'm also glad to hear that SGGE is investing in the ability to cut off fewer customers in the areas.

Um I do have a question though about how people can access these services.

So when I I I went on the website and I've been looking, and it's not the easiest to find, and how do you sign up to say, hey, I do need maybe a hotel stay or I do need a power generator.

How can customers know about this?

The the number one best way to get assistance in the case of an emergency or in the moment of a PSPS is to call 211.

Okay.

Uh we work very closely with 211 to distribute resources to our customers.

Great.

Um the meantime, in a non-emergency scenario, uh, folks can if you type into our website AFN or access and functional needs or accessibility, um, that web page will come up and you can self-identify as and uh someone in need of access and functional needs.

Okay.

Got it.

And this may be a question for Brian and ATT, but the if there is a public safety power shut off, that doesn't negate the cell phone towers, correct?

It in some in most scenarios it shouldn't.

We we haven't had that impact for as long as I've been at the company.

Okay, so even though the power's off, you can still use your phone to call 211 or 911 or anything else.

Correct.

Okay, yeah.

Fantastic, especially as uh these companies are phasing out landlines.

That would be critically important to have that lifeline there.

Um, so calling 211, I very much appreciate that.

Do you know what is the average length of time of a public safety power shutoff?

Is it days?

Is it hours?

That's very good question.

Uh it's highly dependent on the scenario.

Um, as Bernadette mentioned in her slides, and I'll let her jump in as well.

Uh last year we had some of the longest PSPS events we've ever had as a company.

Um we do try to restore power as quickly as possible.

As that both of us serve in the emergency operations center.

We're we're responders.

We've been in those scenarios where we are sending out ground crews to go inspect every single line, and we are switching power back on line by line.

So I'll let Brennetta add anything.

Yeah, I don't think I will say over my last five years at the company.

So I I will say most likely the trend is unfortunately probably longer nowadays.

But especially when we saw, I mean, January again was unprecedented.

Two and a half weeks of our EOC activated.

I mean, you can imagine what a strain it was on every employee at SCGE covering those 24 hour shifts.

Um, but yeah, those were and not to say you know that people were out for two weeks, but it's still, you know, those elongated timelines are really tough.

Yeah.

Um I mean, we saw what happened in Altadina in Los Angeles and in January, and we had five fires in the second week of January here in San Diego that I'm grateful we put out.

So I want to thank you for being proactive.

Um, one piece of feedback I did get from residents way out in East County when there was a prolonged power shutoff for safety, was the gas station because eventually the gas station couldn't pump gas for three or four days, and so folks out in rural areas couldn't get their tanks filled for their cars.

And so that's something else, maybe uh to think about is eventually, you know, these small business businesses are gonna need a generator or something just to pump cars out there.

It's things we don't think about necessarily in the city, but gas stations are few and far between sometimes out in the rural areas.

So that's uh just some feedback to send from my people I've heard about.

And I will add, you know, we we are required by the CPUC to send notifications to customers that might be impacted one to two days in advance.

Um don't take those lightly.

Uh that's the perfect time to stock up on supplies.

Make sure you have enough water or medication or whatever you might need in the case that power does get shut off.

But yes, that thank you for that feedback.

Thank you.

Uh thank you so much for your work on this.

And I do encourage everyone to take a tour of the emergency operations center.

It's just um, and thank you to UCSD for all the camera work.

It's incredible that we can now detect fires in the backcountry.

I mean, I've heard the stories about the Cedar Fire and how people downtown went to bed and woke up and got 911 calls on the firefighters says the fire is in our backyard, it's here.

No one knew how fast they would spread.

And so it's just um we've made huge remarkable progress here in San Diego County in partnership with SCGE.

And so just really huge thank you for your work on this.

And um, thank you again for working out what residents will do during these public safety power shutoffs.

I just you are a model for how this should be done, and we want to continue to support you in this work.

Um, and hopefully other utility companies can take this on.

So uh thank you very much.

This is just an informational item only.

We appreciate you being here, and there's no motion required, and this brings us to the end of our agenda.

And remember, heed the warning if you do get a notification of public safety shower public safety power shutoff or an evacuation notice from our fire law enforcement.

Please heed that warning.

Um we were going to move on to our non-agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Sarah, please proceed with any non-agenda public comment.

Thank you, Chair Von Wilpert.

Rule 2.7, non-agenda public comment as an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on this agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee.

Each speaker will have two minutes to share their testimony.

And as a reminder, if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online, you'd like to call into the meeting to speak, please dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 161-217-1797 pound.

We've received three speaker slips here in chambers.

We will begin with in-person testimony.

Pre to Javier, if you could please approach the electron, you will be followed by Caesar and then Sammy.

Yeah, really.

Yes, please.

Good afternoon.

I am Predah Javier.

Senior victim of ceramics toxicity in residential zone community since 1984.

This is our primordial threat to our health and safety.

Second, highly possible home invasion from the last 14 occurrence.

Three fast moving traffic.

Our requests for basic bomb for two sites since 2022 was never addressed despite D nine staff promises.

For open city.

Find protection from erosion and mosquito.

Victims from Toyas Creek.

Six cracks and potholes, uh Choya's parkway.

Seven allow farmers and proximity here after hard to farm at new riots C We know protective walls against radiation.

Thank you.

This is upstream downstream.

We barricade sandbag the sea phase or floor towards to the ocean.

You see this one.

And what are you doing?

Caesar, I just want to know no one's gonna be able to hear you online because you're not speaking to the microphone.

Sorry.

No one will hear you online unless you speak into that microphone.

So it's up to you.

I'm just letting you know the audio will not transfer unless you're on that microphone.

Okay.

We pour water.

Okay.

Bump it out.

King of water.

Is a board member of the water authorities.

We need more water here.

Put it in a tumker, bring it into the treatment plan.

Next step, of course, we have to take care of the workers.

Not just one, but tank of oxygen and mass.

Then they did.

I notice one wheel is on the right.

I don't know what kind of procurement.

Hold it, bring it to the landfill, and so on up to the ocean.

Clean the ocean water.

Put some barricade, pop it out, put it in the water treatment plant.

How is that?

How is that?

We're here to help.

Not just to criticize or wake you up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker here in chambers is Sammy.

Hi there.

Um I don't think two minutes will be enough for me, but I'll do my best.

In all honesty, I me coming here is probably at risk of my own personal safety and probably those of uh my neighbors and possibly some friends and family.

Uh I am a longtime resident of Little Italy and I own two properties there.

Um and you know, over the course of the last two years, uh actually I'll take that back maybe four years ago.

We had a new property management company move in.

Um that in the past two years has started acting to go rogue.

Uh I've had multiple break-ins into my house.

Um I've had uh my place flooded by the same people that are breaking into my house that basically are my neighbors who have also joined our board.

And um, you know, uh since then I've noticed that the structural integrity of two of my uh my patio doors have been compromised, allowing them multiple entry points into two of my units that sit on top of each other.

Um I share walls with two units that they both own.

Um, you know, I I uh I know I can call 911.

I know I'm by the way, I'm a software engineer.

Um my identity had been stolen by the same people.

Um I've had six compromised phones, four compromised MacBook Pros.

There's only so many phones and MacBook Pros I can buy.

Um, you know, and I continue to fall victim to this.

Um, I mean multiple calls to uh STPD and um, you know, uh the authorities and whatnot, and unfortunately uh none of them ever got answered.

Um there's only one reason why.

Those calls never went through.

You guys have talked about how you know the uh calling 911 is a lifeline.

Unfortunately, that has been taken away from me.

And uh it's not because uh I learned that like even if you don't have a phone line, you can still always call 911.

You don't need an active phone line to do so.

But when you're c when your phone has been uh simswalked, you don't have that option.

Um I needed somebody to talk to.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

You can also submit comments at council committee at Sandieago.gov.

Thank you.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide an agenda public comment at this time.

We will begin testimony with Peggy Walker.

And if you can give me one minute here, please.

Thank you for your patience.

And Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Got it.

Good morning.

I shared this with community and neighborhood services committee yesterday.

So excuse me, Councilmember Campbell, for repeating the staggering safety and health problems of drifting smoke and vapor and multi-unit housing.

I've become acutely aware of these problems of multi-unit housing, secondhand smoke and vapor through teens in my youth group, many from vulnerable communities.

And one example, a girl said her family has moved several times to escape drifting smoke that triggers her asthma.

Her ER visits became so frequent, hospital staff now knows her by name.

In another situation, an elderly woman with severe allergies complained of drifting gifting tobacco smoke and marijuana vapor coming from the manager's apartment below hers.

The owner failed to take action, and the tenant is reluctant reluctantly moving and with her son losing her independence in affordable housing.

I came to urge this committee to support citywide smoke-free MUH policy because there are too many examples like these.

Sadly, many of those affected are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their apartments and see no place else to go.

The safety benefits of smoke-free MUH policies include reduced fire and health risks, second-hand smoke, for example, contain 7,000 chemicals, 70 known to cause cancer, marijuana vapor, 33 carcinogens.

No one wants that fine particulate matter from smoke and vapor lodging deep in their lungs.

Thank you for considering smoke-free MUH policy.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is phone number ending in 8700.

You can unmute by pressing star six.

Excuse me, to uh committee uh member Dr.

Campbell and your sharing at the uh item that we just did on the opiad uh crisis and uh ECST.

Uh it was just wonderful.

Everything you said.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you to everybody on that item.

It was a big sharing, and it was very helpful, and I just want to know that I value and appreciate that kind of work.

So a while back I said that I was going to put together after the recess, uh a plan for pedestrian walking.

And when I tried to do that, it just didn't work out for me because uh it just seemed like there was just no plan per se that I could do that would be helpful to others because it's so personal and so unique to your own experience when you're walking.

But I do want to say a couple of things.

As you know, I chirp a lot about self-advocacy when it comes to walking.

You know, the buck stops here, and we have to watch out for ourselves.

Uh, and that's so important, and the awareness of your surroundings so that you can take care of yourself is critical.

Now, I've learned through my lessons for 10 years of being a walker.

You know, I I don't bike anymore, I don't drive a car, and for 10 years I've been walking downtown and other places.

So I have a lot of experience.

And you know what works for me uh besides kindness and awareness is hand signals.

I use a lot of hand signals with my with drivers in cars, and I lift up my feet when I walk.

I found out I was shuffling a little bit or something, and I now lift up my feet in it.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you.

Our next speaker in the queue is Terry Ann Skelly.

If you can please unmute and begin, you will have two minutes.

Good morning, Public Safety Committee Chair Von Wilbert.

I'm um I'm a volunteer on many youth programs in the city, especially projects involving promoting safety and healthy choices.

I would respectfully like the public safety committee to consider how much smoke-free public place ordinance would contribute to public safety.

As the American Cancer Society states, and I quote, our smoke-free laws are popular because they work.

We must not forget or minimize the pivotal role they've played in slashing smoking rates and bringing overall tobacco use to a historically low levels in California.

End quote.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this morning.

Thank you for sharing your testimony.

And the final speaker in our queue after the five-minute timer concluding is Judy Strang.

Judy, if you can please unmute and begin.

Good morning, public safety committee.

Thank you.

I'm at my work site, and I never so much appreciate Zoom opportunities as when I'm here planning for our after-school activities where teenagers will be assisting elementary school students.

And I relish the opportunity to be with our youth population.

I just like to remind the public safety committee that next month is youth substance use prevention month.

We often notice it because of Red Ribbon Week.

But we really like October as our young people are back in school to draw focus on how important is the prevention of substance use.

And I would say that there's a direct connection between substance use and public safety.

Some of them are obvious and some of them aren't.

The part that I've noticed when I was a social worker and now see working with young people is the role that it plays in domestic and family violence.

I know particularly the role that alcohol plays but one that's of particular concern to me today that I'm mentioning is the role that marijuana used plays in neglect of our young people by their parents who are using it.

So I think it's important to realize how much substance particularly marijuana affects public safety and affects the welfare and safety of our families and our young people.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment and chair saying other hands up in the queue and the five minute timer having exhausted this concludes non-agenda public comment all right thank you very much that brings us to the end of our agenda thank you to the members of the public and all of our staff for your participation I will now adjourn this special meeting of the public safety committee to our next regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday October 15th 2025 at 2 p.m we are adjourned I just can't remember when we go back to where I can use an I can be straight is hard to explain well I don't want to be the blame not anymore.

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