San Francisco Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee Meeting - October 13, 2022
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San Francisco Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee - October 13, 2022
The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee met on October 13, 2022, with Chair Gordon Mar, Vice Chair Catherine Stefani, and Member Myrna Melgar present for the main agenda. The committee approved three liquor license transfers, held an extensive hearing on traffic enforcement and street safety, and continued a scheduled special-order hearing on SFUSD sexual assault and harassment response to October 27, 2022.
Note: The raw transcript also includes unrelated broadcast segments (a mayoral drug-enforcement press conference and a District 6 candidate forum) that are not part of this committee meeting and are not summarized here.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Items 1-3 (liquor licenses): No public comment was offered in chambers or by phone.
- Item 4 (traffic safety hearing): Sarah Benton testified about her 20 years of homelessness and problems with vehicle purchases and citations. Wesley Saver, senior policy manager at Glide and representing the Coalition to End Biased Stops (over 80 organizations), called for ending pretext stops and said racial disparities in traffic enforcement are persistent and harmful. Brian Hogsman of WALK SF urged SFPD to focus enforcement on the five most dangerous driving behaviors on the High Injury Network, noting 15 pedestrian deaths this year and that 93% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on the High Injury Network. A caller criticized the meeting's length and outdated technology. Adam Kavlaka (District 6) said SFMTA often refuses to enforce bike-lane blocking and gave examples in SOMA. Another caller strongly supported Supervisor Stefani's position and law enforcement and criticized ending remote testimony. Lisa Church (District 3) expressed frustration that drivers face no consequences and said the city's systems seem designed for drivers. A Bayview/D10 resident, part of a bike-first family, urged automated enforcement and better design/enforcement, citing speeding on Third Street and a February hit-and-run at Third and Fairfax. An Ingleside resident said enforcement has been declining for a decade and criticized agencies for blaming COVID.
- Item 5 (special order): On the motion to continue the SFUSD hearing, there were zero public commenters in chambers or on the phone line.
Liquor License Transfers
- Item 1 (Murphy's Pub, 217 Kearny St): Officer Salmanson from SFPD's Alcohol Liaison Unit recommended approval. John Murphy explained the downtown business was slow and food service had become cost-prohibitive, so he sought a type 48 license to serve liquor competitively. The committee voted to forward the license to the full Board with a positive recommendation.
- Item 2 (Expensify Lounge, 88 Kearny St): Officer Salmanson recommended approval; Rebecca Stamy White said Expensify planned a members' lounge with alcohol service incidental, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. The committee voted to forward with a positive recommendation, noting Supervisor Peskin's support.
- Item 3 (SaveMart/Lucky, 3801 3rd St): Officer Salmanson reported zero letters of protest and two in support, and recommended one condition requiring monitoring of adjacent property to prevent loitering. Reggie, the new store manager, said Lucky Bayview would be a full-service grocery store, with over 90% of employees hired from District 10, local vendor partnerships, and an opening on October 26. The committee voted to forward with a positive recommendation, noting Supervisor Walton's support.
Traffic Enforcement and Street Safety Hearing
- Supervisor Mandelman called the hearing, citing Vision Zero's 2024 goal, 27 traffic deaths in 2021 (10% lower than 2020 but near the 28 average since 2014), and an SFPD citation decline from about 74 per day in 2019 to about 10 per day currently.
- Community analysts Steven Breach and Luke Bornheimer presented data from 64,200 SFPD citations (September 2017 onward). Since 2014, 244 people had died and over 26,000 had been injured; a crash injury occurred about every 3.7 hours and a fatality about every 13 days. In the past 18 months, 43% of citations focused on the five most dangerous violations; only 28% in equity priority communities; 60% of citations were on the High Injury Network, but only 18% combined High Injury Network with focus-on-the-five. They recommended more infrastructure, transparent data, automated enforcement, and a focus on the five dangerous violations on the High Injury Network.
- Supervisor Melgar raised infrastructure gaps in District 7, described her own near-miss while biking, and asked about staffing, equity, and links to climate goals. Supervisor Stefani stressed police staffing shortages, supported more officers and traffic enforcement, and expressed concerns about unarmed traffic enforcement.
- Commander Peter Walsh (SFPD) detailed the decline: in 2019, Traffic Company had five squads (7 sergeants, 45 officers) plus two Vision Zero squads; by 2022 it had four sergeants and 22 officers (47 active-duty in the full traffic company including supervisors and ancillary posts). He cited Ferguson, RIPA data collection, body cameras, the pandemic, and department-wide staffing as factors. He reported 21 Vision Zero fatalities through August 2022, versus 23 in all of 2019.
- Tom McGuire and Sean McCormick (SFMTA) said the city is not on track for 2024, but engineering investments help. SFMTA issues about 1.2 million parking citations per year pre-COVID and generates about $90 million in revenue for Muni. PCO staffing is about 261 available against 326 authorized, with about 25 vacancies. McCormick reported 33,000-plus citations in 2022 for double parking, bike-lane, bus-zone, and obstruction violations versus 40,000-50,000 pre-COVID, with early 2023 trends up 25%. They discussed 311 heat maps (Valencia/Folsom), bus-camera enforcement limitations, and reliance on state law changes for photo or bounty enforcement.
Special Order: SFUSD Sexual Assault and Harassment Hearing
- The hearing (220471) was scheduled as a 4:00 p.m. special order, but the committee continued it to the October 27, 2022 PSNS meeting because key members and stakeholders were not available. Upon reconvening, the committee voted to excuse Supervisors Melgar and Stefani and formally continued the item with no public comment.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1 (Murphy's Pub liquor license): approved 3-0; forwarded to full Board with positive recommendation as a committee report.
- Item 2 (Expensify Lounge liquor license): approved 3-0; forwarded to full Board with positive recommendation.
- Item 3 (SaveMart/Lucky liquor license): approved 3-0; forwarded to full Board with positive recommendation.
- Item 4 (Traffic Enforcement and Street Safety hearing): continued to the call of the chair by a 3-0 vote.
- Item 5 (SFUSD sexual assault/harassment hearing): continued to October 27, 2022, with Supervisors Melgar and Stefani excused; the vote was 2-0 (Walton and Mar).
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the Thursday, October 13th, 2022 meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee. And I'm joined by Vice Chair Catherine Stephanie and committee member Mirna Malgar. And I want to thank uh Stephanie Cabrera for for um of the clerk's office for um staffing the meeting and also Matthew Ignow from SFGov TV. Um and before we move forward with the meeting, I would like to announce that Supervisor Malgar's hearing on response and resources available to students experiencing reporting sexual abuse and or sexual harassment at SFUSD schools has been can will be continued and to the October 27th PSNS meeting. Um Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, um we'll need a vote on the continuant and then I'll proceed with the announcements. Stephanie, I member Melkar. So I'm sorry. Comment for the continuance. Yeah, I was just an announcement, Madam Current. So maybe if you can move ahead with your announcements and then we'll make the motion shortly. The Board of Supervisors and its committees are now convening hybrid meetings that allow in-person attendance and public comment. While still providing remote access and public comment via telephone, the board recognizes that equitable public access is essential and would be taking public comment as follows. First, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. Those attending in person will be allowed to speak first, then we will make take those who are waiting on the telephone line. For those watching either channel 26, 28, 78, or 99, and sfgovtb.org. The phone number is streaming across the bottom of the screen. The phone number is 415-655-0001. Again, 415-655-0001, then enter the meeting ID 2484-459-2786, then press pound and pound again. When connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up and the public comment is called, those joining us in person should line up to speak along the wall. To your right, my left, and those on the telephone should dial star three to be added to the speaker line. If you're on your telephone, please remember to turn down your TV and all listening devices you may have been using. As already indicated, we will be taking public comment from those attending in person first. And then we'll go to our public comment telephone line. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing to in either of the two ways. Email them to myself, the public safety and neighborhood safe services clerk at Stephanie.cavreta, which is C A B S and Bravo R-E-R-A at SFgov.org, or if you'd like to submit public comment via email, it will be added to the record. You may also send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office at City Hall 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Place, room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors Agenda of October 18th, unless otherwise stated. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh can you please call item number one? Item number one is a hearing to consider the transfer for a type 48 on-sale general public premise liquor license converted from a type 47 on-sale general for bona fide eating place liquor license to Conorine Murphy LLC to do business as Murphy's pub located at 217 Kearney Street in District 3. This will serve the public convenience of necessity and county of San Francisco. Members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001 when prompted, enter meeting ID 2484-459-2786, then pound and then pound again. If you haven't already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. The system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted, and you may begin your comments when we go to public comment. Thank you. Thank you. Um I'd like to welcome Officer Salmanson from the SFPD ALU to present on this item. Officer Salmanson. Thank you, Officer. Do we have a representative from Murphy's pub perhaps on the line? Apologize.
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