San Francisco Rules Committee Regular Meeting – December 9, 2024
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
San Francisco Rules Committee Regular Meeting – December 9, 2024
The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors met on December 9, 2024, at 6:15 PM UTC (10:15 AM local) to deliberate nine items. Chaired by Supervisor Shimon Walton, with Vice Chair Ahsha Safai and Member Aaron Peskin, the committee also heard from Supervisor Hillary Ronen. Items included modifications to affordable housing reporting, sunsetting the Mental Health SF Implementation Working Group, a progress hearing on Mental Health SF, consolidation of prevailing wage laws, a proposal to establish an Office of Citywide Food Coordination (tabled), and four mayoral appointments—one approved, three rejected.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 (241083): Ordinance amending Administrative Code to replace quarterly 100% affordable housing reports from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development with semi-annual reporting beginning July 31, 2025. Moved forward with positive recommendation. Passed unanimously (Walton, Safai, Peskin aye).
- Item 2 (240984): Ordinance changing the sunset date for the Mental Health SF Implementation Working Group from September 1, 2026, to the effective date of the ordinance. Moved forward as a committee report. Unanimous.
Discussion Items
- Item 3 (241148): Hearing on the progress, successes, and remaining provisions of Mental Health SF. Dr. Hillary Kunins, Director of Behavioral Health Services, presented key achievements: approximately 400 new residential care and treatment beds, creation of the Office of Coordinated Care (serving over 8,500 distinct individuals in FY23-24), 24/7 citywide Street Crisis Response Team (diverting 97% of eligible behavioral health 911 calls from police), expanded pharmacy and access hours (70 additional service hours per week), and a 32% increase in methadone admissions and 46% increase in buprenorphine prescriptions. Challenges include volatile funding from Proposition C (30-40% below spending plan), data integration limits due to 42 CFR Part 2 confidentiality, and ongoing site acquisition for the Mental Health Service Center. Supervisors Ronen, Safai, Peskin, and Walton praised the progress. The hearing was filed unanimously.
- Item 4 (240985): Ordinance moving prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and hours of labor requirements from the Administrative Code to the Labor and Employment Code. The file was duplicated and referred to the Budget and Finance Committee; the original proceeded to the full board with a positive recommendation. Unanimous.
- Item 5 (241119): Ordinance establishing the Office of Citywide Food Coordination within the Human Services Agency and dissolving the Food Security Task Force. Public comment was divided; several speakers opposed the fast track and lack of community input, while others supported the office as a needed coordination step. Chair Walton moved to table the item, emphasizing the need for broader community engagement. Motion to table passed unanimously.
Appointments
- Item 6 (241110): Appointment to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board (seat term ending March 1, 2025). Two applicants: Estella Ortiz and Neil Hellenan (unable to attend due to trial). Ortiz, a community advocate with personal and professional experience in reentry and violence prevention, was appointed on a motion by Chair Walton. Unanimous.
- Item 7 (241161): Mayoral appointment of Joanna Gubman to the Board of Appeals (term ending July 1, 2028). Public comment was supportive, but the committee voted to reject the nomination, citing the recent mayoral election and preference for the incoming mayor to make appointments. Motion to reject passed unanimously.
- Item 8 (241162): Mayoral appointment of Sara Barz to the Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors (term ending March 1, 2027). Public comment was supportive, but the committee voted to reject for the same reason. Motion to reject passed unanimously.
- Item 9 (241163): Mayoral appointment of James Byrne to the Police Commission (term ending April 30, 2028). Byrne spoke about his focus on the Tenderloin and police deployment. The committee voted to reject unanimously over concerns about timing of the appointment.
Key Outcomes
- Items 1, 2, and 4 forwarded to the full Board of Supervisors with positive recommendations. Item 3 (hearing) filed.
- Item 5 (food coordination) tabled.
- Item 6: Estella Ortiz appointed to the Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board.
- Items 7, 8, 9: Mayoral nominations rejected by the committee.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning and welcome to the December 9th, 2024 Rules Committee meeting. I'm Supervisor Shimon Waltz and I'm joined by Supervisor Aaron Peskin and soon to be joined by Supervisor Asha Safai. Today's clerk is Victor Young, and I would like to thank Seuss Inos from SFGov TV for broadcasting this meeting live and to make sure that we get the information out to the public. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Uh 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 line up to speak. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the rules committee clerk at VICTOR.yo N G at SFgov.org. If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors as included as part of the file. You may also send your comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall, one Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Plays. Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of December 17th. Unless otherwise stated. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Would you please call item number one? Item number one is the ordinance amending the administrative code to end certain quarterly reporting requirements by the mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor regarding the development of 100% affordable housing and to establish new semi-annual reporting requirements beginning July 31st, 2025. Thank you so much. Would you like to say anything first? Uh Supervisor Ronaldo. And Supervisor Ronan is also joining us this meeting. Good morning. I believe we have a presentation. Just a short presentation. Good morning. I'm Sheila Nicolopoulos with uh Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development. In 2018, permitting was a significant barrier to affordable housing. The city had fragmented permitting systems that were delaying important affordable projects. So in response, Supervisor Ronan brought forward legislation that required reporting quarterly reporting from MOCD that would increase transparency around where permitting was causing log jams in development of affordable units. That legislation became administrative code section 109.3 that requires MOCD to report every three months on four areas. The report must include one, a list of every 100% affordable housing project that is applied for approval permit or other city authorization from DBI, public works, fire department, mayor's office on disability, or the planning department. Two, information regarding the financing and financing related deadlines for each 100% affordable housing project. Three, any approval permit or other city authorization. Each 100% affordable project is waiting to receive from the department or office, and four, the date of any application and current status of each pending approval permit or other city authorization for 100% affordable projects. Since these requirements were codified six years ago, permitting for affordable housing has been streamlined through ministerial approvals under state bills like AB 2011 and SB 35, creation of a central permit center, creation of an online database, appointment of the director of housing delivery, and other efforts. Permitting is no longer the issue that it was. Fortunately, permitting for affordable housing is now an efficient and coordinated process. It now takes less than five months to complete permitting compared to more than 13 months a few years ago. Working with Supervisor Ronan, MOHCD developed the legislation before you today. It will remove the requirement to report on permit status and require reporting every six months instead of every three months. We are confident that this modification will continue to provide useful information to decision makers and the public while reducing administrative costs. And I want to highlight two places where you and the public can find reports and data about affordable housing production. One is Mo CD's webpage for reports and plans, which has our annual reports, the annual performance and evaluation reports required by HUD, the five-year consolidated plan, action plans, and all of the reports that are required by the board. And the second I want to highlight is our MOCD affordable housing dashboard. That's a mapping tool that provides current data about complete and pipeline projects.
openpublica.com