News

Leading Public Health and Scientific Experts to Advise the Transition on COVID-19 Response

WASHINGTON – Today, the Biden-Harris Transition announced the formation of the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, a team of leading public health experts who will advise President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, and the Transition’s COVID-19 staff. The Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board will be led by co-chairs Dr. David Kessler, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. Dr. Beth Cameron and Dr. Rebecca Katz are serving as advisors to the Transition on COVID-19 and will work closely with the Advisory Board.

“Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” said President-elect Biden. “The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations.”…(more)

By Joshua Sabitini : sfexaminer – excerpt

To better protect renters and track vacancies in San Francisco, a city supervisor wants to require landlords to report detailed information about their rental units annually to the Rent Board.

Under legislation introduced Tuesday by Supervisor Sandra Fewer, the Rent Board would be required to maintain an inventory of all rental units, giving The City a clearer picture of what rents are actually like in San Francisco and the number of vacant units.

Beginning July 1, 2022, owners of these units would have to provide annually information about each of their units, including the business contact information of owner or property manager, unit address, approximate size, approximate rent, housing services included in the rent such as water or parking, whether unit occupied or vacant and the date when occupancy or vacancy began. The requirement does not apply to owner-occupied units… (more)

by Joshua Sabitini : sfexaminer – excerpt

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/sf-challenges-pgs-power-moves/

Some people think that Hetch Hetchy power is free. It never was, but It just got a lot more expensive. There is a ghost in the machine and it has sprung a big surprise on San Francisco.

By Joe Eskenazi : missinlocal – excerpt

Mission Local has obtained a purported Sept. 11 letter from former San Francisco HR manager Rebecca Sherman, in which she expresses sorrow and outlines a long-running forgery plot culminating in a Black MTA worker being given a bogus $514,000 discrimination settlement Sherman allegedly crafted out of whole cloth.

I am writing this to you because I made a terrible decision that I followed with a series of additional terrible decisions, and I have created a giant mess,” reads the opening line of the email from Sherman to Katie Porter, the deputy city attorney advising the Department of Human Resources.

“I shouldn’t have gotten into this to begin with, and should have, at so many points along the way tried to make this right. I resigned this morning and will fully cooperate with whatever the process is from here on out.” …(more)

Board of Supervisors Intends to try to implement some changes by shifting power at City Hall. Many suggestions have come from the City Controllor and the Ethics Commission. This should be an interesting meeting to watch.

Thursday, October 1, 10AM – agenda and docs
Government Audit and Oversight Committee
1. Rent control at Midtown Park Apartments
2. Administrative Code – Selection of Contractors From a Pre-Qualified List and Under As-Needed Public Works Professional Services Contract Reform. 200787
3. Budget and Legislative Analyst Performance Audit – Operational Overlap on Sewer Repair Between Public Works and the Public Utilities Commission. 200686
4. Administrative Code – Mayor’s Selection of Designees in Matters Regarding Contracting and Other Matters. 200949
5. Hearing – Investigations Into Public Corruption. 200279

On the other hand, it appears last year’s Health Care Master Service Plan is on hold during the pandemic, leading one to believe there is no plan.

Thursday, October 1, 1PM – agenda and docs
Planning Commission Meeting
3. Health Care Master Service Plan – continued indefinitely, but one may comment on continuance on this 2019 plan

by Benjamin Schneider : sfweekly – excerpt

State Senate candidate Jackie Fielder wants California’s Indigenous tribes to play a much larger role in wildfire prevention, as they did before colonization.

As skies finally begin to clear following a week of smoke that can only be described as hellish, many Californians are probably thinking, how can we prevent this from happening again?

Yes, California, the U.S. and the world need to begin drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But, as SF Weekly recently reported, in terms of what the state can do to reduce the intensity of wildfires in the near term, the consensus is clear: California needs to burn off a lot more fuel in controlled fires.

A recently approved program to limit the environmental review process for prescribed burns and vegetation management will help, but money and labor remain major obstacles. California will need to get creative to actually achieve its fire management goals.

That’s where a new plan by San Francisco State Senate candidate Jackie Fielder could come in. Fielder, a lecturer at SF State and leader of the recent campaign for a public bank in the city, has proposed an Indigenous Wildland Fire Task Force that would give Indigenous tribes a more central role in wildfire prevention. Building off tribes’ millennia of experience with “cultural burns,” the plan would establish new opportunities for collaboration among researchers, state, local, and federal regulators, and Indigenous communities; expand cultural burns beyond existing tribal lands; and provide new leadership and job opportunities for Indigenous people and others…(more)

 

By Nuala Bishari : sfpublicpress – excerpt

Mayor London Breed’s apparent toleration of an unsanctioned homeless encampment “sweep” by a corporate event company this month has led her critics to ask whether the policy of City Hall is to turn a blind eye to privatized harassment of people living on the streets.

The sweep, which occurred just past midnight on the morning of Sept. 10 outside the old Honda dealership on 12th Street, resulted in the disposal of eight people’s belongings. Peter Glikshtern, a partner in the event company, Non Plus Ultra, was captured on video coordinating the operation with a hired crew. Witnesses said they threw tents and bags containing human ashes, musical instruments, car repair parts and thousands of dollars in cash into the back of two trucks, which were later taken to the dump…(more)

 

By Laura Wenus : sfpublicpress – excerpt (includes audio track)

an Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties will vote on Measure RR, a one-eighth-cent sales tax to be collected for the next 30 years, whose revenue from which would provide critical funding for Caltrain. While supporters say the rail service is at risk of shutting if the measure does not pass, this is not an emergency measure brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has cost Caltrain the majority of its riders. Opponents of the measure point to that decrease in ridership as evidence that the need for this rail service has dropped and say it may never recover enough to justify the tax. Opponents also say that a sales tax will disproportionately affect those already most hard-hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic…(more)