Good morning.

This meeting will now come to order.

Welcome to the October 16th, 2025 regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Jackie Fielder, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Danny Sauter.

And we also have sitting in for a moment, President Raphael Mandelman.

Our committee clerk is Monique Creighton and our thanks to Eugene Labadia of SFGov TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Public excuse me, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line 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-U-E.

C-R-A-Y-T-O-N at SFGOV dot or G.

If you can submit public comment via email, be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file.

You may also for, excuse me, send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall number one, Dr.

Carlton B.

Lit 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 install cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions to today's proceedings.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of October 28th, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And Supervisor Cheryl is unfortunately unable to join us today and has asked to be excused.

So I'll now move to excuse Supervisor Sheryl.

Yes, and on the motion to excuse Member Sheryl, Vice Chair Sauter, Vice Chair Slaughter, aye.

Chair Fielder?

Aye.

Chair Fielder, aye.

I have two ayes with member Sheryl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call item one.

Item one is an ordinance amending the labor and employment code to revise a healthy airport ordinance to require beginning on January 1st, 2026, that contracting parties employing certain airport workers make irrevocable health care expenditures on behalf of their employees at tiered rates, reflecting the employees' household size.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And today we have President Midleman joining us to present on this item today.

President Mandelman, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Fielder.

Um the ordinance before you will amend the Healthy Airport Ordinance, which was passed by the Board of Supervisors in November of 2020.

Since the Healthy Airport Ordinance passed, thousands of San Francisco's airport service employees have gained or improved their ability to provide for the health care needs of their families.

These improved benefits have helped to attract and retain high quality employees whose work impacts safety and security, improving airport safety and security for travelers and the broader public by promoting a healthier workforce and minimizing the potential for contagion to spread from the airport, which is a major worldwide transportation hub to other environs.

The purpose of the legislation before you today is to preserve the improvements made to airport safety and security through the HAO while providing covered employers expanded flexibility to determine to determine how best to provide health care expenditures to their employees.

Additionally, the amendment uh adds language to address how self-funded health plans can take credit for insurance provided.

Um I do want to thank SCIU USWW, Local Two, and Teamsters Local 856 for their feedback on the legislation, as well as Airlines for America, which provided comment as well.

Um I want to thank Deputy City Attorney Ian Eliasoff for uh his work in drafting legislation, of course, Supervisor Walton uh for his co-sponsorship of the original legislation and subsequent amendments, including this one.

And I want to thank An Haw in my office and Natalie G and Supervisor Walton's office for all of their work on the um on the amendments and the amendments to the amendments.

Um the amendments uh to the amendment were circulated last week and are part of the file.

And I would hope that you all will forward this to the full board with positive recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you, President Mandelman.

And now I understand that Mr.

Nick Minard from the budget and legislative analysts office has a report on this item to share, so please go ahead, Mr.

Minard.

Thank you, Chairfielder, and good morning, committee members.

Nick Minard from the Budget Legislative Analysts Office.

Item one is an ordinance that amends the labor and employment code to essentially broaden options for airport and entities that operate at the airport and that are um have employees that are in the quality standards program.

It broadens options for them to comply with the city's health care spending requirements.

But now there are two additional options, one of which is just to make an irrevocable health care expenditure, which um could be any number of things that the employer cannot take back.

Um and it also allows for a collective bargaining waiver, which the current labor and employment code does not.

So the quality standards program uh applies to people working in health and safety or security at the airport, so it doesn't apply to all employees at the airport.

Some of the um employers are airport contractors and some of them are not.

Uh the legislation before you also creates a tiered structure for employers to set a spending limit based on or a spending floor, excuse me, based on the household size of each employee, which we detail on page four of our report.

Uh we looked at the airport contractors uh that have employees that are part of the quality standards program.

We looked at their health care spending as it was a snapshot of it as of a year ago, and we compared that to the requirements and the proposed ordinance, and that summary the summary of that analysis is on page five of our report.

Uh we believe this will increase cost for those employees by about 270,000 a year.

That's 71 different uh employees.

And because those are airport contractors, those costs will ultimately be passed on to the airport and paid for by the airport, uh, not the general fund.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Minarn.

Any questions?

If not, um Madam Clerk, let's take 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.

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

And I believe President Minelman will be proposing non-substantive amendments to this item.

I please go ahead.

Um I believe they have been circulated, but I also have copies if folks need them.

Um I don't think that I I believe that under our rules, which we have only just been alerted to, I am not a member of this committee unless one of you leaves.

So I cannot, I don't think I can propose anything.

I would ask that one of the committee members uh move the amendments.

Um I move to amend this item as presented.

Yes, and on the motion to uh amend this item as presented.

Fleisch chair slaughter.

Fly share solder aye.

Chairfielder, aye.

Chairfielder, I have two ayes with member saw uh member Cheryl excuse.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

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

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

Vice Chair Slaughter, Fly Share Sauder, aye.

Chair Fielder, aye, Chair Fielder.

I have two ayes with member shirl.

Excuse.

Thank you.

And the motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call item two.

Yes, item number two is a resolution authorizing the office of the mayor, office of the city attorney, office of the city administrator, the head of each division, office and department under the supervision of the city administrator, the assessor recorder, and the deputy assessor assessor assessors assessors, excuse me, and director of policy and government affairs in the assessor recorder's office to solicit donations from various private nonprofit, philanthropic and other entities to support number one, the urgent provision of legal services related to the creation and enforcement of immigration laws, regulations and policies, including litigation and regulatory reform efforts at the local, state, and federal level, and non-legal services and support for the city's immigrant communities.

Number two, good and services, goods and services, including legal services related to communities, defending and supporting LGBTQ rights.

Number three, goods and services, including legal services related to defending and supporting reproductive rights.

Number four, goods and services, including legal services related to defending existing environmental protection laws and promoting environmental protection efforts, and five, goods and services, including legal services related to racial equity initi initiatives, all notwithstanding the behested payment ordinance.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And on this item, we also have President Mandelman here to present, but I also want to thank City Attorney Brad Russi from the City Attorney's Office, Sophie Hayward from the City Administrator's Office, I was seeing Director Jorge Rivas from OSIA, as well as Holly Lung from the assessor recorder's office to answer any questions.

President Mandelman, please go ahead.

So this item would extend the behested payment waiver, allowing the mayor, the city attorney, the city administrator, the head of each division office and department under the supervision of the city administrator, the assessor recorder, and the deputy assessors and director of public director of policy and government affairs in the assessor recorder's office to solicit donations from various private nonprofit, philanthropic, and other entities to support services related to immigration, LGBTQ plus rights, environmental protection, reproductive rights, and racial equity.

The board approved the original waiver uh back in February, and it expired in August.

Because these waivers only last uh six months, uh, I'm here today asking uh that we renew it.

Um over the past year, uh we've seen unprecedented threats and attacks on our immigrant and queer communities, our environment, our most basic human rights at that same period.

The city's faced one of the toughest budget years in decades.

Many of the organizations that provide critical legal and social services have seen their funding reduced or eliminated.

I will note, given the ongoing nature of these threats, uh, the realities of the city budget and the time it takes to coordinate fundraising.

Six months is in my view a very short window.

I wish that we could grant these waivers for longer periods of time, but um we cannot.

Ums named in the resolution are still in the midst of fundraising efforts.

I want to thank Melanie Matthewson in my office and Brad Russian in the city attorney's office for their work on the legislation, and I believe we have members of the departments named in the waiver here for further questions.

And I hope that you will forward this item to the full board.

Thank you.

Thank you, President Manelman.

Um, I do have some questions for each of the departments.

So I guess we can start with the city attorney's office.

Deputy City Attorney Brad Russian, can you um detail what amount has been raised specifically using this waiver?

Sure.

Good morning, supervisors, deputy city attorney Brad Russian before I get to your question, Supervisor Fielder.

I want to thank President Mandelman for introducing this legislation because it's very important to our office, and thanks to the committee to the committee for hearing it today.

As you know, we've been involved in numerous lawsuits as of yesterday.

We're a party to 10 different lawsuits against the federal administration on a variety of different areas, birthright citizenship, sanctuary, DEI issues, grant conditions.

We have people in my in my office who are reviewing every single federal grant to make sure there aren't conditions that the city cannot agree to that are, you know, in contravention of our laws and values.

And so this has been an enormous amount of work for the people in my office, and we need all the help that we can get.

In terms of your question, Supervisor Fielder, um, we have reached out to philanthropic foundations for direct support for our office in the city.

We've contacted law firms and experts for our ongoing litigation for pro bono services to help the litigation, and we've reached out to third parties to help nonprofits, community serving nonprofits.

We expect to receive about $850,000 in grants from Philathropic Foundations, and the city attorney in October reported a behested payment from a foundation to the what's it called?

To the public rights project, which is a nonprofit that assists cities in dealing with these issues, basically advises them and they help with our litigation too.

Understood.

Thank you so much.

Those are all the questions I have for the city attorney's office.

And then thank you so much to the mayor's policy chief Kunal Modi for coming in.

Could you same question?

Could you share what this waiver has allowed the city administrator's office to do and what has been raised specifically using this waiver?

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Jorge Rivas with OCA, and on behalf of the city administrator.

Thank you very much for this topic and the question.

So our office uh starting this year, as you all know, with the uh changes in the federal administration has been focused greatly on coordinating city efforts not only with other city departments but also with community, and so that has taken up a lot of our time within the capacity that our office has.

We have uh not raised any resources used in BSet payment, but we have started we started uh leveraging our relationships and reaching out to uh philanthropic uh entities to make sure that we're setting up those conversations to hopefully they will lead to something into the future.

Um can you share if we haven't if we haven't raised anything specifically under this waiver in the past six months?

What is the hope for its usage in the next six months?

So right now, um, if this does go forward, we have established relationships with a with a couple of uh foundations, including the Haas Junior Fund, the Mimi and um fund, and then we also have some other and the San Francisco Foundation, as you all know.

So we want to continue those relationships.

We have learned about the process about how to request resources and how to make a um have a extended conversation with them so we know how to move forward if this uh this um best of payment waiver does go forward.

And this would be specifically for immigration services or or what kind of immigration support?

Exactly.

So from our office, I think we're thinking about the what the needs have been raised by community, which includes legal services and also um economic opportunities and support.

Okay.

Um thank you so much.

Those are all the questions I I have for the city administration's office.

I would like to um hear from either Mr.

Adam Bongsavett from the mayor's office or or policy chief mode about um this waiver.

I have the same question for for everyone today.

Um can you share how this what we've been able to do with this waiver in the mayor's office and what specifically has been raised under it?

Thank you, Chair Fielder and members of the committee.

I think there was a slight misunderstanding in preparation for item number two.

Um we were not aware that uh you wanted the mayor's office to present on this particular item.

We're prepared to speak to item number three.

Um, in absence of preparation, I can speak to a higher level um in terms of how we would utilize this behavior payment waiver, um, but we were not prepared to speak on this today.

Okay.

Um then we can can you speak to a higher level about what the mayor's office is gonna specifically.

Chairfielder in late September, the mayor, uh Mayor Laurie, along with uh Mayor Mayhan San Jose and uh Mayor Barbara Lee announced uh a plan to support families that are uh going through immigration legal issues given uh federal actions and uh this behested payment waiver would go a long way to ensure that we could go solicit those funds to support families in need.

Um what is the commitment to raise for that?

I do not believe uh that number has been publicly announced, but I'm certainly happy to get you uh a response in writing today.

Okay, um understood.

Um thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

I would have the same question for the assessor recorder's office.

Um thank you, and welcome, Ms.

Holly Lung.

Um, same question.

Can you share how this waiver has been used the past six months and how it will be used in the next six months?

What specifically has been raised?

Thank you for the question, Chair Fielder, Vice Chair Sautter, Holly Long from the Office of Assessor Recorder's Office.

This waiver over the past six months, we've used this authority responsibly and thoughtfully.

We've engaged with philanthropic entities, not large corporations, developers, or any entities doing business with our office.

Um we've used this waiver to work in um define ethical boundaries, and we're not working in gray areas, so that waiver has been able to allow us to do that.

We've made strong progress in alignment with OSEA and Jorge Rivas, the city ministry's office and mayor's office and city attorney's office, and building alignment with their offices, and engaging these potential non-interested uh donors, and we're able to, as um Director Rivas said, build a foundation so that now we have a path forward for transparent and open fundraising.

So without this waiver, we may risk kind of returning to the gray area of not exactly knowing whether uh discussion with the entity or donor would fall within a behavior payment waiver.

So we would hesitate to engage in these activities unless this waiver is um uh supported and extended for the next six months.

Um, I mean, the behavior payment waiver um still allows.

I mean, we we can still solicit um donations from non-interested parties, and I'm hearing from a lot of different offices that um foundations have been approached.

Um, you know, I just we we have a C in the City Administrator's Office participating in these conversations around immigration legal services.

Um, and I I appreciate Assessor Recorder Joaquin Torres for the tremendous work that he's done to set up a lot of these conversations.

Um, but I think we have to also balance that with um, you know, ensuring that the public can trust the decisions we make in our respective offices, um, are all in accordance to good governance principles.

And so I just wonder what what conversations is the assessor recorder not able to participate in that director um of OSEA, Jorge Rivas cannot participate in.

Um kind of.

How is it that the assessor recorder um is kind of also doing duplicative work of OSEA in soliciting donations?

Um the assessor recorder's office.

We've had a proven track record of fundraising for philanthropy behind payments, and so there are relationships that the assessor and we are we like we said, we're also in alignment and coordination with uh director Rivas' office.

But we've been kind of counseled that even a brief conversation or discussion around city government needs and any gap in financing might lead to a behested payment um you know decision.

So that's where the gray area kind of kicks in.

So it's a little bit of interested parties, the definition is very broad, and we understand that and we are also you know um not about undue influence uh for the city or any of the contracts.

It's just that interested parties, for example, for a contractor, could be um you know principal officers, could be board of directors, could be anybody owning a 10% interest in a company as well as subcontractors.

So the definition is very broad, and we just want to be in a safe space where we can continue these conversations on on behalf of the city's values.

Thank you so much.

Um I yeah, the assessor recorders office sees thousands of appeals every single year.

And I think that exposes a a ton of risk, um, and it makes a lot of sense that that the office would want to apply for this waiver in order to be a part and and lend the different relationships um to the effort of of supporting especially immigration legal services, um, and and also I am just I'm of the a different view of of these waivers in that they should be um they should be very specific timelines and we should be seeing um material gains from from their use um to communities that need them to our city government services that are increasingly underfunded.

Um I know President Mandelman said that six months is is probably too short of a time.

I think that it's quite a long time uh in city government and with respect to um again the immigration legal services, um, this has been one of my biggest priorities is getting funding for immigration legal services.

Um staff are burning out as ICE continues to arrest people in the courts.

Um I know so many city officials, including the assessor recorder, including Director Rivas, have been working nonstop to try to support communities, and there is a feeling of um frustration with the the lack of city response.

Um these organizations did not receive additional funding, even though ICE has 70 at least 70 billion more dollars allocated to them by Trump.

And so they are completely underwater, and there's been promises um that they will we will be able to fundraise for those services instead of allocating city funding.

And so I I share their their impatience with the process, and I also am trying to balance that with um with the public trust of using these waivers, and so I am I'm confident that Director Rivas is able to continue those conversations that have been started with the assessor recorder's office um regarding immigration legal services, and I I have full faith that that we'll be able to see the next six months as a another opportunity to to seek those funding, but I am also um with all of these waivers really seeking real results from them, balancing that against the the risks that we're exposing um more so to the public's trust in using them.

Um so thank you all for answering my questions.

Now I'll pass it to President Middleman.

Thank you, Chairfield Fielder.

I guess I would um from from my perspective, I think I think we disagree about um uh uh the balance of costs and benefits of allowing of allowing um solicitation of behested waivers by um elected and appointed officials, there is certain I would or I would agree is there's certainly an op there's potential for corruption there, and it is a challenge.

The problem is that for communities um that we represent and that we work for, seems to me we are often in the best position to know where the needs are and we are often asked uh by people who you know are interested in helping need a need, and generally I would hope not because they're you know seeking to corruptly influence us, but through an honest interest in a problem, how to do that and the breadth of the vested waiver prohibition um means that and I've had this experience myself that even sort of even very intentionally tiptoeing into this space and trying to keep yourself on the right side of the line, you're always at risk of not knowing some of the connections for you know, board membership or um some corporate relationship or something that nobody really has in mind, but is there.

So I think the behested waiver legislation is filled with traps for the unwary, and the waiver process does provide a way to intentionally figure out is this a set of public concerns that are important enough to us that we're willing to rely on the disclosure provisions that will, after these solicitations have been made, show that Supervisor Mandelman happened to seek a significant contribution from an important entity in you know in his district that was seeking something from him, and that would not be good, but that would also be shown and would become a public embarrassment to me.

And and for some set of things, I think that that is worth that that's probably the right way to do it.

I think around some of this um, you know, funding for immigrant legal services, I think it is a problem.

I mean, I don't know whether you would want to go into the fundraising business, but I kind of think it would be good for the District 9 supervisor to be able to not have to worry that inadvertently when she makes a request for a contribution to an organization doing immigrant legal defense, that she has without any knowledge that she actually what had approved a contract nine months earlier that was one of like a gazillion items on the agenda, or had um or might you know you know in the future have a uh an issue in front of the board that a board member of the organiz, you know, that someone some kind of relationship with the person that she was asking for the funds from was involved.

I think that creating sort of a you know a safe harbor for some of these things that we think are particularly important is um is is good, obviously.

I keep proposing these waivers, so and I and I'm now trying to get the ability to get waivers for members of the board of supervisors who I don't think have a history of using that ability corruptly, but are uniquely excluded for um you know reasons that I think are you know I don't know why Mayor Breed wanted that, but um I mean I can guess so um uh anyway, reasonable minds can differ.

People on this board that I've served with have, you know, former Supervisor Puskin has a very different view of this than I do.

Um we can disagree about these things, but I do think that this is it is not great to be taking us, other elected officials, appointed officials off the field in this moment when we are finding our public resources so constrained.

But I also can understand frustration about not seeing a waiver that is for a specific purpose that is very important to this board of supervisors, not seeing that come to fruition within like a reasonable period of time, and that also strikes me as very legitimate.

I mean, yeah, thank you, President Mandelman.

Um to be clear, I would, and again, regard this this aside, we have the ability to um to raise funds, ask for contributions from non-interested parties.

We have reporting requirements around these kinds of things.

Um we have um specific forms we have to fill out when we do make those kind of solicitations, and the district nine supervisor has been soliciting donations from the public to support immigration legal services.

And I mean, we'll get to this at another another time, but but I don't want that ability to expose myself when I'm making hundreds of decisions about different interested parties.

I think that is exposing us to way more.

And I think it is in exactly these moments of crises that we could potentially lose the public's trust.

Again, aside from any um actual impropriety, it is also it is also what trust we have from the public.

And I have a different view from even Aaron Peskin in that I don't think any department heads or elected officials should be in the business of soliciting contributions from interested parties at all.

And there are, you know, there's there's there's a lot of different um levels to this, but but just to say I think it is just incumbent upon elected officials to do their own due diligence to see what kinds of decisions they are making about any potential interested parties, and I want these waivers to actually be waivers and not just under what undermining um a good governance initiative that was supported by and passed by San Francisco voters.

Back to you.

Um I would just say I I think that that point um is I mean I'm very sympathetic to the idea that we should not be shaking down people who have business um before the city and that that is the reason and a very legitimate reason for the behested payment prohibition.

My concern is that it is rife with traps for the unwary, that the potential for an honest mistake, a good fit, you know, in good faith and not recognizing that we are soliciting an interested that we might be soliciting an interested party, we can find ourselves over the line and only discover that you know later.

Um, and that's that is what I'm worried about for us and for other elected officials and for appointed officials.

And I think it I think the legislation creates an overall just dampening on the willingness and ability of people in government to solicit private funds, not that we want to encourage them to be going after interested going for the contributions from interested parties, but because there is a concern or fear that we may not know, and the interested party, it's the interested party itself may not know that it's actually within the within the legislation.

Yeah, I agree to disagree, and thank you so much um for coming to present on this item.

And with that, um thank you so much to the departments for answering my questions.

Madam Clerk, let's take public comment.

Yes, members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up now, along with Side by the Wendells, all speakers will have two minutes.

It appears that we have no public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

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

And um, and with that, I would like to request to duplicate this file.

The file has been duplicated.

Um colleagues, I do want to consider the um original file removing the assessor recorder and designated staff from the assessor recorder's office from the behested payment waiver, so that we can consider the assessor recorders waiver separately from uh the mayor's city attorneys, and city administrators and their designated staff.

And the reason is because um, as I was saying, I think the conversations that the assessor recorder has been allowed to start can be continued by by OSIA that has our office of of immigration and civic engagement.

And so I I just want to consider these separately, and my staff has emailed the amendments to you, so they should be in your inbox, and I've also brought copies to distribute as well.

And so I now move to amend the original file as presented.

Yes, and on the motion to amend the original file is presented.

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Um I now move to send the original file to the full board of supervisors with positive recommendation.

Yes, and on the motion to send the original file to the board as amended with the positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Saudder.

Vice Chair Sauter, aye, Chair Filder?

Aye.

Chair Fielder, I have two ayes with member shirl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Now I'm introducing amendments to the duplicated file.

Removing the mayor, city attorney, and city administrator, and designated staff from their offices from the passive payment waiver.

As amended, this waiver would apply only to the assessor recorder and the designated staff from their office.

I now move to amend the duplicated file as presented.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, and on the motion to amend the duplicated file is presented.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Vice Chair Sauter, aye, Chair Filder.

Aye.

Chair Filder, I have two ayes with member shirl excused.

Sorry, Madam Clerk, I would like to rescind the vote.

Okay, and on the motion to rescind the vote.

Vice Chair Sauter, aye.

Excuse.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Um sorry, I got lost.

Um I will remove to amend the duplicated file as presented.

You want the so you want to do the motion to amend the duplicated file as presented?

Correct.

Okay, so on the motion to amend the duplicated file as presented.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Chair Filder?

Aye.

Chair Fielder, aye.

I have two ayes with member shirl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

I now move to send the duplicated file to the full board supervisors without a positive recommendation.

Yes, and on the motion to send the duplicated file to the board as amended with a positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Madam Clerk, without.

With no recommendation.

With no recommendation.

I'm sorry.

And on the motion to send the duplicated file to the board as amended with no recommendation.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Vice Chair Sauter, aye.

Chair Filder?

Aye.

Chair Filder, aye.

I have two ayes with member shirl excused.

And um Madam Chair, I would like to note that we do also need to call public comment on this item.

Understood.

Deputy City Attorney Brad Russian public comment needs to occur before all the the board takes any the committee takes action.

So unfortunately, I think you're gonna need to rescind the votes that you took, take public comment and retake the votes.

Um can we resend them in all one go or all right?

I move to rescind um our motions to send the duplicated file and also amend the duplicated file as presented.

Yes, and on the motions to rescind to rescind the amended file to the original to the on the motion to amend the original file as presented to rescind to amend the original file is presented.

Vice Chair Sauter.

I have two ayes with member shirl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, can we go to public comment?

Yes, and members of the public who wished 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.

Seeing no public comment, public comment is now closed.

And um, Deputy City Attorney Brad Russian, I think you can make a motion to adopt the amendments to the original file as presented, the duplicate file as presented, and to send the original file with positive recommendation, the duplicate file with no recommendation, all in one motion if you'd like to make that motion.

So I move to um to amend the original file as presented to send the original file to the full board of supervisors with positive recommendation.

Yes, and on the motion to amend the original file, so is in it and forward and on the motion to send the original file to the board as amended with the positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Sauter, Vice Chair Slaughter, I I, Chair Filter, aye.

Chairfielder, I have two ayes with member Sherl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

So I now move to amend the duplicated file as presented and send to the full board without recommendation.

Yes, and on the motion to amend the duplicated file as presented, and on the motion to send the duplicated file to the board with no recommendation.

Vice Chair Sauter, Vice Chair Slaughter, aye.

Chair Filder, aye, Chair Fielder, aye.

I have two ayes with Member Sheryl excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Oh, thank you, everyone.

Madam Clerk, please call item three.

Yes, item number three is a resolution authorizing a six-month waiver of the city's behested payment ordinance for the mayor and designated members of the mayor's office to solicit donations to support core initiatives persuaded to section 3.620F of the campaign and governmental conduct code.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And we have our policy chief of health and human services for the mayor's office to present on this item.

My thanks also to Adam Fongsevet from the Mayor's Office for being available to answer any questions.

Policy Chief Modi, please go ahead.

Great.

Thank you so much, Chair Fielder, for having me here.

Um so uh we appreciate the partnership with the Board of Supervisors to allow this behavior payments waiver earlier this year and shortly thereafter in uh March of 2025.

The mayor announced the breaking the cycle executive directive and overall initiative to tackle uh our intersecting homelessness behavioral health and drug addiction crisis uh across San Francisco.

Uh shortly thereafter, the mayor announced the breaking the cycle fund in partnership with the housing accelerator fund tipping point in the San Francisco Foundation.

Uh in the months that have passed, uh, since that was announced in May, uh, the mayor's office has roughly raised around 40 million dollars in support of a set of initiatives across five key areas.

The first to uh improve our street conditions and our ability to reach people in crisis on our streets quickly and show up with the right capabilities to support them.

The second to stand up uh the right types of beds and supports to help people in crisis stabilize and get onto a path to care.

The third is to improve the flow and quality of our broader homelessness and behavioral health uh response system, the fourth to tackle the um crisis of quality and um level of service within our permanent supportive housing portfolio, and lastly to improve the overall financial sustainability of our system of care.

And so we've been working uh in partnership with obviously our city departments and our own city programs, but also leveraging philanthropic capital to advance those objectives uh in the subsequent months.

Happy to take your questions and talk through any specific questions you have.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Modi.

Um how has the mayor's office used this BASID payment waiver?

Um, and you know, if you can detail any amounts that have been raised specifically under this waiver, so we have raised uh uh thirty we have in the door, we have 37 million uh 200,000 dollars.

Uh we have spent about 15.5 million of that funding, predominantly the areas uh where the funding has been deployed has been around uh programs around family uh uh homelessness prevention pilots uh to uh to help people who are at risk of becoming homeless actually stabilize and stay in their homes.

We've also invested in a set of uh new uh interim housing units that we've stood up or ones that are in pre-development, including a family shelter, including a facility to help care for people when they're discharged from the ER post-5150 hold to increase uh our restore program, which is a program that we have here to uh have initiation for bupenorphine and methadone for those in the grips of fentanyl addiction.

Um we have also uh uh done a workforce housing pilot to support our uh case managers and other uh folks in our uh homeless response system actually be housed so they can continue to care for our guests in our system of care.

Uh and we have uh uh started to uh earmark and deploy funding to help stabilize some of our permanent supportive housing units in desperate need of more clinical supports.

And we're happy to, you know, uh follow up with a detailed uh spreadsheet.

Thank you so much.

Um yeah, you know, there's there's a huge lack of treatment capacity, it seems that um that you and the mayor have been working diligently on.

Um, and I just wonder if if we are seeing better outcomes when it comes to getting people into treatment and long-term recovery with the help of this waiver.

You know, it I think the the uh the place where we've seen the most promising is our uh drug treatment initiation.

So when you look at our starts of bupenorphine and methadone, I think um there's a treatment on demand hearing last week, and the Department of Public Health presented on that.

I don't have the exact figure in front of me, but year to date, I think there's been a 30% increase in bupenorphine starts.

The thing that we still struggle with is our six-month retention rate, and so that's something we're very focused on.

But uh getting people started on Medicaid assisted treatment to help them on a pathway uh to recovery has been a huge focus of ours.

That's what the restore program in particular uh is really focused on beyond the current program that we're running.

We're actually in the process of converting uh one of our existing sites to have the right health care supports on site so that they can also be a restore program provider.

We see a huge need to scale this program and have been working towards that.

Thank you.

And um other waivers granted this year have had a reporting requirement to the board 60 days after the expiration of the waiver, including but not limited to identifying the the donors, the amount of donations, the interested relationship that any donor potentially has with the department that solicited the donation.

Um, and the the previous waiver related to core initiatives was granted via the mayor's fentanyl emergency ordinance and didn't have such a reporting requirement.

Do you have any issue recording to the board how the previous waiver has been used and and for this one as well?

No, we're supportive of that.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Um Madam Clerk, let's take 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 that we have no public comment.

Seeing no one else making public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

Um, you know, as I've mentioned before here, the hazard payment waivers, in my view, should be granted sparingly and for initiatives which are urgent and of high priority, and and our residents should be seeing the results of them.

Um I do agree that that the core initiatives here are of a huge priority for the city, for many of us on the board, if not all of the board, um, and so I, you know, I I support I supported this waiver that was granted in the fenton Mill Emergency Ordinance.

And I also want to be clear that, and um, in this time as the administration is tackling this huge problem.

I do want to note that the way that it feels in the mission is has been uneven and a bit inconsistent.

And so I really hope that this waiver and the city's approach to treating substance use disorder, behavioral health actually does have equitable results across the city and not just for downtown, not just for the tenderloin or Soma.

There's been on a couple of different reports about the adjustments of the neighborhood teams and whether we are seeing the results, and I want to be able to support this and I want to work on this.

And also in the mission, I want to make sure that that we're feeling and and seeing that as a result, because for a lot of people it's been feeling that things have just moved to the mission and we haven't had the commensurate resources surge to our area.

Um so I just want to urge the administration to use these funds for the core initiatives and look for lasting equitable distributions of the programs that will help all San Franciscans, especially underserved communities.

Is how do we get them into the right pathway of care and how do we have the stickiness so it's not just the first 24 hours or the first week, but we actually have a system of care that can guide them back towards a better place.

Obviously, the mission has been a really challenging area.

I think I appreciate your partnership with our mission street team.

Obviously, you know them well.

Um we would always love more resources, but I think the uh the rhythm and the coordination across our departments, which is a new model, having uh clinical uh workers with social workers, and it's a very complicated challenge when you approach someone who's in crisis who may have multiple challenges that they're confronting.

I feel like we're getting in a good rhythm, but we agree that we have a long way to go, and we look forward to working with you on that.

Thank you.

I am introducing amendments for this item to add a reporting requirement to the legislation so that it's in line with our other behested payment waivers granted by the board.

And the amendments are on page two line three, adding a paragraph that reads whereas the parties receiving this waiver have agreed to report to the board of supervisors donations to the city that were solicited under this waiver, such reports will identify the donor, the amount of the donation, and the interested relationship the donor has with the department that solicited the donation.

Departments will submit the reports to the board within 60 days of the expiration of the six month period authorized by this waiver.

Now therefore be it.

So my staff has emailed the amendments to you, and they should be in your inbox.

I've also brought copies, and I now move to amend this item as presented.

Yes, and on the motion to amend this item as presented, Vice Chair Slaughter, Vice Chair Sauder, I.

Chair Filder?

Aye, Chair Fielder, I have two ayes with member Sheryl excuse.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

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

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

Vice Chair Sauder, Vice Chair Sauder, I chair filter, I, aye.

Uh Chair Fielder, aye.

Chairfielder, aye.

I have two ayes with member shirk excuse.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, any other business before us today?

That completes our meeting agenda.

Seeing no other business, we are adjourned.