Good morning.

This meeting will now come to order.

Welcome to the September 4th regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I am Supervisor Jackie Fielder, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Janie Sauter, Supervisor Steven Sherrill.

The committee clerk today is Monique Creighton.

Our thanks to Jamie Etchaveri of SFGov TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please sign up to speak on your right.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to the government audit and oversight committee clerk at M O N I Q E.org.

If you can 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.

Number one, Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlit Place, Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102.

If you have documents you would like to be included as part of the file, please submit them to me before the end of the meeting.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions to today's proceedings.

Finally, the items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of September 16th, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please call item one.

Yes, item number one is a resolution authorizing the mayor, the mayor's chief of staff, chief of public safety, assistant chief of public safety, public policy advisor, and the chief of the fire department to solicit donations from various private entities and organizations to support the provision of cancer screening for eligible SFD employees for six months from the effective date of this resolution, notwithstanding the behested payment ordinance.

Thank you.

And today, Chief of Staff for the San Francisco Fire Department, Adrian Sims, I believe, will be presenting on this item today.

And we also are joined by Chief Crispin.

Thank you so much for being here.

I'm gonna give my speaking time to Chief Matt Alba, who is the chief of our behavioral health unit.

Understood.

Thank you so much.

Please come forward.

Good morning.

My name is Matthew Alba.

I serve as the battalion chief and head of the San Francisco Fire Department's Division of Health, Safety and Wellness, which also oversees our behavioral health unit.

In addition, I have volunteered since 2014 as a board member with the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, which our dedicated patient navigators recently reported five new cases of active members diagnosed with cancer in the past two months.

I'm here today in support of this resolution and on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the fire service.

In 2020, I had a seizure that led to the discovery of a grade two oligodendroglioma, brain cancer.

My neurooncologist explained that there are well-behaved and more aggressive brain tumors.

I had the fortune of a well-behaved tumor.

Many of my brothers and sisters were not as fortunate, like brother Jamie Burns.

If I hadn't had that seizure, my tumor would have continued to grow undetected and would have significantly changed my life.

I don't want another firefighter to have to wait for a medical emergency to find out they have cancer.

This resolution is historic.

It authorizes access to advanced cancer screenings not covered by insurance.

Screenings that can detect early.

But my case isn't even among the highest risks that firefighters face.

Tony Stefani, the president of our San Francisco Firefighters, Cancer Prevention Foundation, battled two different types of cancer.

This resolution ensures fewer of us have to rely on luck or tra or tragedy to know that to know if we are sick.

It gives firefighters a fighting chance, and it gives San Francisco a stronger fire service.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any questions or remarks?

Supervisor Cheryl.

Thank you, Chair Fielder and Chief Alba.

Thank you for your words.

I think this is, like you said, uh historic, but at the very least, incredibly, incredibly important.

Um, you know, I think the fire department does an incredible job of training members on safety and making sure they're safe in emergencies and in everyday situations, but perhaps the most dangerous aspect of your job is cancer and cancer risk.

And I don't think we've done enough on that.

So I want to thank you all for your leadership.

Sam, thank you for your leadership being here today.

To Tony and the rest of the foundation, thank you.

But I think this going forward, when we look at safety, we have to look at the things that are actually hurting our firefighters, and cancer, from what I understand, is at the absolute top of that list.

So whether it's about the PFAS equipment, whether it's about cancer screening, this has to be a holistic view, and we have to be aggressive on getting forward on it.

So thank you for bringing this forward and thank you for leading the way on it.

All right, thank you, colleagues.

Seeing no other questions or comments.

Madam Clerk, let's take public comment.

Yes.

Members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up now along along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes.

Madam Chair, members of the committee, Dean Crispin, Chief San Francisco Fire Department.

Cancer is a leading cause of firefighter line of duty deaths.

Since the creation of the San Francisco Cancer Prevention Foundation, San Francisco Fire Department has lost more than 400 members in 20 years.

This count does not include retired members who relocate out of state and do not notify the Cancer Prevention Foundation, nor cases where spouses' partners failed to report diagnosis.

So it is significantly higher if those were reported.

Firefighters face a 9% higher cancer incidence and a 14% higher cancer mortality rate than the general population.

Early detection saves lives.

Advanced screenings identify cancer at treatable stages before symptoms appear.

The program will be offered to firefighters over 40 with five and above years of service, the group at the highest risk.

Built-in evaluation measures will track outcomes and create a model for long-term sustainability.

Corporate and philanthropic funding is essential to match the city's investment and expand access to screenings.

We ask you support this program publicly and help attract corporate partners so every firefighter has access to life saving measures.

I think this would be a good opportunity to illustrate some of the proactive steps we've taken in our administration to save our members' lives.

We've revised our decontamination policy, including storm sticks that can be placed on every engine, so every member is decontaminated after every fire.

We've institutionalized training for SCB SCBA use throughout the duration of incidents.

We've also issued gear bags, so our members that are transporting their turnout gear do not uh expose their families uh to uh harmful chemicals.

And I'd like to thank uh local 798.

I would like to thank the members of this committee and the board of supervisors for all your support and mayor Daniel Lurie for all of his support for public safety and for this legislation.

We seek your support.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chief Crispin.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning to uh all the Board of Supervisors members present.

Uh again, we thank you so much for your time.

My name is Sam Gebbler.

I'm the vice president of San Francisco Firefighters Local 798.

And I would love to be here for a happier note, uh, something a little bit more positive.

But like the like the chief said, we have another five members that have just been diagnosed with cancer.

We don't know what their outcomes are yet.

Uh, and frankly, we're just tired of going to funerals.

Uh, it's it's sad that one of the best things we do is put on a funeral at this point.

Uh San Francisco cares about so many people.

Uh recently, our union sent toys to kids in Texas that lost everything in the floods, and we're just trying to get some help from the city for our members that continue to pass uh from cancer.

We think this is preventable, we think this is treatable, and it's well known, well established scientific fact that if we find these cancers early, uh, not only is there a better outcome for the member, there's also a significantly better outcome for the city.

You spend less money treating these cancers.

You don't have to replace a firefighter, you don't have to pay for workers' comp uh nearly as much.

Uh, this is a win-win for everyone, and we are very appreciative for the support of Chief Dean Crispin and his staff and Mayor Lurry and all of the supervisors that have decided to support this.

Uh, we need more help.

Uh, our Cancer Prevention Foundation is uh leading the country in what it's been able to do, and sadly it's still not enough.

So, again, on behalf of all men and women of the San Francisco Fire Department and San Francisco Firefighters Local 798, we thank you for your support and attention to this matter.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have any additional speakers on this item?

Adam Chair, that completes public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you, Chief Crispin and local 798 for being here.

Um, I now move to send this item to the full board of supervisors with positive.

Sorry, first need a close public comment.

Seeing no one else being public comment, public comment is now closed.

I now move to send this item to the full board of supervisors with positive recommendation.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Yes, and on this the motion to uh forward this item to the full board with a positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Saughter, Vice Chair Sauder, aye.

Member Sherle, Member Sheryl, aye, Chair Fielder.

Aye.

Chair Fielder, I have three ayes.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call item two.

Item number two is an ordinance amending the business and tech tax regulations code to reduce the tax rates on gross receipts from telecommunications business activities by moving those activities from category five to category four beginning January 1st, 2026 for purposes of the gross receipts tax and the homelessness group gross receipts tax, and to retain taxpayers' eligibility to take the tax credit for opening a physical location and designated areas of the city as apply to gross receipts from telecommunications business activities.

Thank you.

And today we're joined by Miss Amanda Confried, Chief of Policy and Communications at the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office.

Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chairfielder, supervisors, Amanda Freed with the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector.

Today I'm presenting an ordinance that would reclassify telecommunications business activities for purposes of the gross receipts tax and the homelessness gross receipts tax.

Utility taxation is a complex and technical area.

In Prop M approved by voters last November, we reduced the number of business activity categories from 14 to 7.

In that consolidation, telecommunications was grouped with information, professional, scientific, and technical services.

That means that telecommunications utilities are currently taxed at higher rates than other utility businesses.

To address this, we are recommending a reclassification to move telecommunications with utilities and manufacturing so that all utilities are treated consistently for tax purposes.

Later in today's meeting, you'll also consider two settlements with telecommunications companies to resolve litigation related to the city's access line tax.

We scheduled this ordinance alongside those settlements so the committee could consider the overall fiscal impact of items related to the same industry.

Thank you for your consideration and happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Reed.

Colleagues.

Any questions?

Thank you.

I understand that Mr.

Nick Minard from the Budget Legislative Analysts has an additional presentation on this item.

Good morning, Chair and Supervisors Nick Menard from the budget legislative analysts office.

So item two is an ordinance that amends the business tax and regulations code to reclassify telecommunication companies for the purpose of uh determining their gross receipts tax and homelessness gross receipts tax liability.

Uh the reclassification affects 60 taxpayers, and we summarize on page three of our report.

Uh this will result in a decrease in general fund revenues of 6.6 million dollars starting next fiscal year 2627.

Um and then 1.6 million dollars in the R City R home fund again next year uh because the changes take place in calendar year 20 2026, so that affects revenues in the following year.

Uh the revenue loss has not been budgeted.

Uh so we consider approval of this item to be a policy matter for the board.

This matter to be a policy matter for the board.

So we're not recommending approval.

Thank you, Mr.

Minard.

Supervisor Sherrill.

I apologize.

Can you either repeat or rephrase that last part?

I just I kind of missed it.

I didn't really grab it.

I'm sorry.

So typically when we review a piece of legislation, we'll either recommend approval or rejection, or it's a policy matter, which is a kind of in between an approval and a rejection, and sometimes we'll have recommendations about how to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Minard.

Um colleagues, any questions, marks?

All right.

I have a question for Ms.

Minard.

Given the loss of revenue that the city um will have after this.

How does that change the long-term fiscal impact of Prop M?

I Prop M, if I'm remembering correctly, over the long term, will result in a net increase of 50 million dollars a year in the general fund.

Uh so this reduces that slightly by about 6.6 million dollars starting 2627.

Okay, thank you.

Seeing no other questions, Madam Clerk, we can move to public comment.

Yes, members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up now along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes.

It appears we have no public comment on this item.

Seeing no public commenters, public comment is now closed.

Uh I now move to send this item to the full board of supervisors with positive recommendation.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, and on this uh the motion to forward this item to the full board with a positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Saughter, Vice Chair Sauder, aye.

Member Sheryl, member Sherl, aye, Chair Filder, aye.

Chair Fielder, I have three ayes.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call items three through thirteen.

Yeah, items three through thirteen are eight ordinances and three resolutions authorizing an approving settlement of lawsuits and a litigated claims against the city.

Please note that items three through ten will be forwarded to the full board as a committee reports for consideration on September 9th, 2025.

Thank you.

And can we now open up public comment for items being heard in closed session?

Yes, members of the public who wish to speak on these items should line up now to speak along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes, it appears we have no public comment.

All right, seeing no one making public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

I now move that the committee convene in closed session.

Yes, and on the motion to convene in closed session.

Vice Chair Saughter.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sauder, aye.

Member Sherl.

Member Sheryl, aye.

Chair Filter?

Aye.

Chair Filter, I have three ayes.

Thank you.

We will now convene in closed session.

SF Gov TV.

San Francisco government television.

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But during challenging times, a little extra support can help you find stability and peace of mind.

The San Francisco Human Services Agency is here to help you get the supportive benefits you may qualify for, like food, cash, jobs, and healthcare assistance.

It's worth trying.

Apply today.

All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna try this call, you might be familiar with.

If you took Muni Metro or a cable car this morning, can I hear a ring ring?

Okay.

If you took BART, Smart or a Caltrain here this morning, can I hear a chew choo?

There we go.

And of course, if you took a ferry this morning, can I hear a toot toot?

All right.

A lot of love to our budget yachting of the bay.

We love the ferry.

As you can see, transit is joyful and fun and an essential part of keeping the Bay Area moving.

The success of Bay Area Transit as a whole and the continued recovery of San Francisco cannot happen without a robust and well-funded transit system.

And no one knows this better than the Voice of Transit Writers here in San Francisco and one of the key organizers of Transit Month, the San Francisco Transit Writers.

So with that, we're just gonna kick it off, and I'm gonna hand it over to Sarah Johnson, the executive director of Transit Riders to get us going this morning.

Sarah, come on board.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for being here, and welcome to Transit Month Kickoff.

I have one challenge.

I want everybody to take public transit.

If you haven't, take it.

Go to your yoga class.

Try taking public transit.

This is what makes San Francisco Bay Area uniquely bay.

And I also have the great honor of introducing Daniel, Mayor Daniel Lurie.

Thank you.

Those are the kind of interests.

Short and sweet.

I like it.

I just took the M line from Church Street.

It was packed.

There was high school students.

There was people going to work.

It felt alive in there.

I got off.

There were uh inspectors checking people's clipper cards, which I love.

And the inspector said to me when they were first out there that people uh were like, what are you doing?

And now many people are coming up to them saying thank you.

Uh and so really appreciate that.

We have to make sure that we treat our inspectors with the respect they deserve.

The one inspector I talked to, Veronica, has been working for MTA and the city for 28 years.

It was awesome.

Our operators, the one thing that I will tell you when I walked into this job, I was always like teachers have like the biggest, most challenging, important job.

Our operators have a really, really challenging job, but they do such great work.

So I want to just shout out our operators.

We are here today because we know Muni is essential.

Buses that get students to school are essential.

Trains that take workers to their jobs are essential.

Every single person here understands the importance of Muni, including me.

It is at the heart of San Francisco's recovery.

Downtown will power our city's comeback with revenue that funds services for every neighborhood.

But if people cannot get downtown on public transit, this recovery cannot happen.

Right now, we all know this.

Muni faces a fiscal crisis, and we are going to save it.

Director Julie Kirschbaum is not afraid to make tough decisions.

Without her leadership, SFMTA would be staring at a more than $440 million budget deficit.

But here's the good news.

Just like San Francisco, Muni is on the rise.

We are seeing record ridership since the pandemic.

Customer service ratings are the highest in Muni's history.

That is why we will continue to focus on core services that residents deserve.

No one, no one wants to see service reductions, and we are doing everything we can do to prevent them.

We must do what it takes, both within SFMTA and with partners across the region to find the revenue that will keep Muni strong.

That means working with State Senator Wiener to pass enabling legislation for a regional transit revenue measure, SB 63.

And I am doing everything I can do to push for more critical resources from the state.

This week, President Mandelman, Supervisor Melgar, and I sent a letter to Director Kirschbaum asking her to bring people together to explore a parcel tax to raise revenue to support Muni.

If we find efficiencies and bring in the revenue we need, we can keep our trains, buses, and cable cars running for years to come.

Muni is San Francisco.

I know how much you care about it.

Your presence here says everything.

Success means that we all have to do this together.

We must continue working together.

Most San Franciscans use many forms of transportation: buses, trains, bikes, ferries, and cars.

And every San Franciscan benefits from a robust public transit system that reduces traffic and takes people to work, to our museums, to our schools, to our small businesses that are powering our comeback.

I know we will get there.

I want to thank the transit riders for organizing today's event.

I want to thank Director Kirschbaum and the entire Muni staff, once again, especially those operators who keep this system running every single day.

And I want to thank my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, President Mandelman, Supervisor Melgar, Supervisor Chan, for their leadership and partnership.

There you are.

Yes.

Supervisor Bilal McMood is here as well.

Thank you, Supervisor, for all of your partnership.

And it's now our responsibility to ensure that Muni continues to serve San Franciscans and the millions of people who visit our city every every year.

I said this morning on Muni to folks.

I said, Let's go Muni.

Let's go San Francisco.

And it's now my honor to support a friend and supporter of transit, Supervisor Myrna Melgar.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good morning, everyone.

Happy transit month.

I am Mirna Melgar, I'm the supervisor for District 7 on the West Side of the City.

Um I am the chair of the land use and transportation committee at the board, chair of the TA.

I'm also on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, so I am a transit nerd.

I think I have the bona fides.

But I'm also a mom of three girls who uh grew up on the west side and went to school in District 7 and took transit from the time they were in third grade, fifth grade, you know, and uh it is such an important part of our lives.

We live walking distance to San Francisco State University, my Alma Matter, where 30,000 students mostly come uh from uh not the neighborhood to that campus.

My district is also home to UCSF and uh City College, all institutions that are super important to young people and to our workforce that also depend on transit.

So I uh was happy uh three years ago that my colleagues supported making Muni Free for Youth, which not only trains an entire generation of young people to be transit riders, but also in church that we have uh passengers and it's been transformational, just not just for young people, but also for our school system because it has brought down uh, you know, it has brought up attendance rates and all sorts of good things have happened because of it.

It is really important that as we um tackle our crisis right now for funding, we also envision our future, our climate action goals, uh the way that our we use land in our city, our density, our future housing on the west side depends on a functioning safe uh transit system that is fast, that comes you know regularly, that people can depend on, and we must make that vision a part of our future.

How we what we leave in terms of uh our city to our kids depends on public transit, depends on a system that is an infrastructure that serves our uses, that serves our businesses, that makes our corridors thrive commercially and serves our residents.

So I am so proud uh to be here with um Director Kirschbaum and uh Director Diana Tarlov uh and my colleagues, and I want to thank the transit riders union for your doggedness and always making sure that we pay attention to these issues, and I want to thank our mayor, Daniel Lurie, for your commitment that you have shown uh to public transit and continue to show uh to make sure that this paves the future for San Francisco.

I also want to thank um Director Ju, 48go.

Oh, there he is.

Because uh, you know, climate, climate change is real, you guys.

It is real, and our kids are gonna inherit this planet in public transit is the largest, the largest tool that we have to solve for greenhouse gases in our city, um, really in our state.

So uh this is super important.

It's all connected uh in what we do.

We'll have uh repercussions for tomorrow, and I'm so proud to be here with all of you so that we can do the right thing.

Thank you so much.

And now, Sarah, you come back.

Oh, the other, Sarah, thank you.

Thank you, Mary.

So many Sarah's very popular name I've heard.

Um before we keep going, I just want to give a quick shout out to our coffee card over there, Slow Street Coffee.

They're giving out free coffee, a godsend in any event, so go and visit them.

This year's transit month theme is Adventure Starts on Transit, and boy does it.

Living in a city is such a privilege.

We're surrounded by diverse neighborhoods, people, opinions, cuisines, events, and uh excitement are only just a little bus or Bart right away.

So I wanted to try something with everyone here.

I'm gonna list out a couple of events, free events that you could go to this month as part of transit month.

And when I say the event, I need everyone to shout a hearty all the board.

Can we do that?

You laugh, but you will do it.

Okay, here we go.

Alright.

This month you can take transit to multiple Muni-themed art fairs.

All aboard.

This month, you can take transit to the Muni Run Club.

Well, you will run the route of your favorite bus lines.

All aboard.

And this month you can take transit to the BART Anime Festival.

All aboard.

That's right.

So adventure starts on transit, and so does culture, community, and connection.

So visit Luma.com/slash transit month 2025 to check out all of the transit month events and get out there and have an adventure.

Um trust me, I met all of my best friends on transit.

It's an extremely true story.

Um, but let's keep going with our amazing lineup here of transit supporters.

I'm uh proud to introduce our next speaker who serves as the president of the board of supervisors, um, and from 2021 to 2025, has served as the chair of San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

Please welcome District 8 Supervisor Raphael Mandelman.

Good morning, everybody.

Who loves transit?

Thanks to the transit writers for organizing us.

Thanks to all of you who've shown up today for us for transit.

Thank you, of course, to all the workers and all of our transportation agencies who are carrying San Franciscans and Bay Area residents around the bay every single day.

San Francisco is the best city in the world.

And our transit is one of the very important reasons for that.

And we are going to be an even better city with even better transit.

One of the things that I appreciate so much about our mayor is that from the beginning of his of his time in office, um, he has been very clear that his priority on next year's November ballot was going to be to would be to do what we need to do to support and sustain our public transportation.

That's been clear from the beginning.

He's been working on it from the beginning, and I want to thank him, and we shall all give him a little round of applause for that.

Um and I am grateful to my colleagues on the board who allowed me to serve as chair of the Transportation Authority for four years.

I am grateful to Mirna Melgar, who is doing such a badass job as our lead transit and land use nerd for the Board of Supervisors, and Tilly Chang.

Tilly Chang, the executive director of our San Francisco County Transportation Authority, who is part of every single important conversation about the future of transportation in San Francisco, in the Bay Area in California.

She provides us with guidance and leadership.

She fights for the money.

She gets us the money from the federal government, the state government, and she is a tremendous leader.

We're lucky to have you, Tilly.

Thank you.

And to your team.

I was gonna shout out Timone, because I'm so grateful for all the work that we've been doing together on uh building electrification.

But as uh as Mirna pointed out, half of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our automobile sector, and if we want to address that, we need to get people on to clean uh public transportation.

One other, well, I got two more transportation leaders I need to shout out.

One is our executive director of the Transvay Joint Powers Authority.

Get excited for Adam Vandawater, everybody.

What is that?

You may ask.

That is that is the body that is going to give you uh a rail line from the peninsula first and ultimately high speed rail right into down.

All right, we are now back in open session.

Madam Clerk, please report on the deliberations.

Yes, uh items uh three through ten were forwarded to the board with positive recommendation as kit committee reports, and items 11 through 13 were forwarded to the board with positive recommendation.

Thank you.

I move that the committee not disclose the discussions during closed session.

Yes, and on the motion not to disclose, Vice Chair Saughter.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, is there any other business before us today?

That completes our meeting agenda.

Seeing no other business, we are adjourned.