San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Meeting - December 6, 2023: APEC Impact Hearing, Retail Theft Grant, and Homeless Contracting Waiver Debate
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San Francisco Budget and Finance Committee Meeting - December 6, 2023
The Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Supervisor Connie Chan and including Vice Chair Raphael Mandelman and Member Asha Safai (absent for later votes), met on December 6, 2023 at 10:00 AM to consider 18 agenda items. The meeting featured a lengthy hearing on the financial impacts of the APEC summit on small businesses and cultural institutions, approval of a $15.3 million grant for organized retail theft prevention including automated license plate readers, and a continued debate on extending streamlined homeless service contracting authority. Most routine grants and contract amendments were approved unanimously.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 (Pit Stop Public Toilet Program): Accepted a retroactive $250,000 grant from BART for three pit stops near BART stations, covering FY2021-22 expenditures. Approved unanimously with two votes (Safai absent).
- Item 4 (Transitional Housing Programs): Authorized applying for and accepting $2,091,240 from the California Department of Housing and Community Development for transitional housing and $291,098 for housing navigation, supporting up to 70 foster youth. Approved unanimously.
- Item 5 (Chinese Hospital Contract): Approved amendment increasing the contract to $20.6 million for subacute skilled nursing beds, extended by one year through November 2024. Approved unanimously.
- Items 6 & 15 (HIV Services Grants): Accepted $15.95 million from the Ryan White Act and approved a $26.5 million contract with UCSF for HIV outpatient services through 2030. Approved unanimously after technical amendments.
- Items 7 & 9 (Overdose Prevention Grants): Accepted $2.225 million from CDC and $2 million from HHS for overdose prevention collaborations, including training 400 paramedics and expanding treatment navigation. Approved unanimously.
- Item 8 (Preschool Hearing Screening): Accepted $1,044,792 from PCORI via UCSF for a five-year study on hearing screening tests. Approved unanimously.
- Item 10 (SFGH Foundation Grant): Accepted $180,000 for Behavioral Emergency Response Team, HIV homeless patients, and Women’s Options Clinic. Approved unanimously.
- Item 11 (California Home Visiting Program): Accepted $272,000 retroactively for nurse home visiting for first-time parents. Approved unanimously.
- Items 12 & 13 (McKesson Pharmaceutical Contracts): Approved amendments increasing combined not-to-exceed amounts to $2.44 billion over four years, with net city cost of $88 million after reimbursement. Approved unanimously.
- Item 14 (A Better Way Mental Health Services): Approved a $13.58 million contract amendment for outpatient mental health for foster youth ages 0-21, extended through June 2027. Approved unanimously.
- Item 17 (Latino Commission Substance Use Treatment): Approved a $17.6 million contract for residential and outpatient drug treatment for Spanish-speaking adults, extended through June 2027. Approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- APEC Hearing (Item 2): Over 20 public speakers, mostly small business owners and cultural institution representatives, expressed anger and frustration about severe revenue losses during the APEC summit (November 13-19, 2023). Losses ranged from $10,000 to over $100,000 per business. Speakers from Bonchon, Orange Hummus, The Grove, Children’s Creativity Museum, and others reported 33-94% drops in revenue due to security perimeters, protests, and the city’s “stay away” messaging. Many urged the city to use the $10 million reserve fund for direct cash subsidies, and called for accountability and transparency regarding the $20+ million spent on APEC. A petition signed by over 50 businesses was submitted. Dr. Carol Tang of the Children’s Creativity Museum noted that Veterans Day weekend, normally their busiest, saw a 23% drop.
Discussion Items
- APEC Financial Impacts Hearing (Item 2): Supervisor Matt Dorsey presented the hearing to assess hardships from APEC. The Yerba Buena Community Benefit District and Soma Pilipinas Cultural District provided data showing 33% drop in visitor traffic in the security zone. Scott Rowitz (YBCBD) noted $15,000 average revenue loss per small business. Raquel Rodon Diaz (Soma Pilipinas) and business owner Manuel Ramirez called for the $10 million reserve fund to be used for loss mitigation, a public hearing on APEC spending, and an audit of the $53 million estimated economic benefits. Supervisor Safai expressed concern about lack of support for small businesses and noted the city’s cleanliness during APEC raised questions about why it isn’t sustained. The hearing was continued to allow for further discussion and potential next steps. The motion to continue passed 2-0 (Safai absent).
- Organized Retail Theft Grant (Item 3): The Police Department presented a $15.3 million state grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections for personnel, technology (400 Flock automated license plate readers), and data analytics to combat retail and catalytic converter theft. The grant covers October 2023 through June 2027. The Budget and Legislative Analyst (BLA) noted that less than half the funds go to patrol overtime, $2 million for vehicles, and $4 million for cameras. The grant locks in a specific vendor (Flock), raising procurement concerns. The committee amended the resolution to clarify it is approved under Charter Section 9.118 (board approval for contracts over $10 million) and duplicated the file; one version was passed to the full board with a positive recommendation, and the other continued to December 13, 2023 for final language. Passed 3-0.
- Homeless Contracting Waiver (Item 18): The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) and Public Works sought to extend streamlined contracting authority (waiving competitive bidding) for five more years (through May 2029) for homeless services and construction. HSH reported using the authority for 159 agreements with 52 nonprofits, opening 10,000 supportive housing units and 3,000 shelter beds since 2019. Supervisors Chan and Safai expressed concerns about lack of oversight, potential for corruption, and questioned why a qualified vendor list (RFQ) couldn’t be used instead of blanket sole-source. Supervisor Mandelman supported the waiver as critical for responding to the crisis. The committee voted 3-0 to continue the item to a future meeting for more information and discussion.
Key Outcomes
- Item 2 (APEC Hearing): Continued to the call of the chair to develop potential relief measures. Motion passed 2-0 (Safai absent).
- Item 3 (Retail Theft Grant): Amended to cite Charter 9.118; forwarded to full board with positive recommendation (3-0) and duplicated file continued to December 13, 2023.
- Item 18 (Homeless Contracting Waiver): Continued to the call of the chair (3-0) to allow further review and discussions with the Office of Contract Administration.
- All Other Items: Approved unanimously and forwarded to the full Board of Supervisors for the December 12, 2023 agenda.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the December 6th, 2023 meeting of the budget and finance committee. I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee, and I'm joined by Vice Chair Raphael Mendelman, hopefully shortly by Supervisor Asha Safayi. Our clerk today is Brent Halipa. And I would like to thank uh SFgov TV uh Corwin uh Cooley for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a friendly reminder to those in attendance to please make sure the sounds all cell phones and electronic devices as to not interrupt our pre uh proceedings. Uh, should you have any documents to be included as part of the file, they should be submitted to myself, the clerk. Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. When your item of interest comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak on the west side of the chamber to your right, my left along those curtains. Alternatively, you may submit public comment and writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the budget and finance committee clerk at B R E N T dot J A L I P A at S F G O V dot O R G. If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file. You may also send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall, that's one. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102. And items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of December 12th, unless otherwise stated. Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. And uh before we call item number one, we'd like to just remind everyone that we have budget and legislative analysts report for items one, three, five, and twelve through seventeen on today's agenda. So for those items, we will have the department presentation first, followed by the budget and legislative analyst, and then we'll take questions, then public comments. So with that, Mr. Clerk, please call item number one. Yes, item number one is a resolution retroactively authorizing the Department of Public Works to accept and expand the grant of up to 250,000 from the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District for the Pit Stop Public Toilet Program starting July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, uh 2022. Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Today we have Bruce uh Robertson here from the Department of Public Works. And uh the floor is yours. Thank you. Good morning, members of the board. Bruce Robertson, Chief Financial Officer for San Francisco Public Works. Today we're here seeking approval for a retroactive 250,000 dollar acceptance expand from BART for the Pitstop program. Uh this item was continued from earlier this fiscal year over discussions and concerns over the the health of the financial organization providing the monitoring services, Hunter's Point family. Um we're here to announce we held a hearing on this in front of the public works commission in September, and we've been working proactively with the controller's office and their staff to ensure their financial health. They have a new executive director, a new CFO, and a new director of HR. And so those positions are filled and they're performing quite well. They've also maintained some of their key institutional staff, their controller and their chief program officer have remained. So there's both new staff that are helping write the ship of the organization and some institutional knowledge. And with that, we see their road to financial solvency and recovery well on its way, and they're performing quite well. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Thank you. Thank you. That helps a lot.
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