Oversight agencies review reparation plan and police activities

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The Board of Supervisors reviewed and passed a draft plan for a city policy package to provide substantial reparations to the city’s black residents Tuesday night, but the details of the plan are yet to be worked out.

Members also asked questions about police reform ahead of further discussion Mayor London Breed On Wednesday, police requested an additional $27 million overtime budget. Meanwhile, another executive submitted a competing request for a public safety budget.

Reparations in review

The Committee of the Whole hearings on the plan spanned more than five hours of a typical council meeting and included presentations by staff of the Commission on Human Rights as well as members of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee.

Committee Chairs Eric McDonnellformer United Way executive and recreation and parks commissioner, and Tinish Hollinsco-founder of SF Black Wallstreet, discussed the urgency of adopting a redress policy, the implementation of which will be a long-term, institutionalized process.

“It’s been done time and time again,” McDonnell said.

The Board also heard an update on the Dream Keeper Initiative (DKI), an ongoing investment program in the city’s black community that was originally funded with $120 million in 2020 police funding following public outcry over the police killing. from George Floyd in Minneapolis. In 2022, Breed gave DKI $60 million a year.

The staff of the Commission on Human Rights has taken pains to point out that reparations policy and DCT have different aims.

While the DKI provides timely assistance to black residents in certain areas, reparations will go further to provide “material and symbolic redress” for the historic grievances in San Francisco that have denied black residents opportunities for generational wealth.

During the three hours of public comment, all speakers were unanimous in their support for the reparations plan, with many also calling for continued funding for the Dream Keeper initiative.

Meanwhile, many of the historical errors that the indemnification policy aims to address have been re-mentioned in the course of discussion by the supervisory authorities.

Like all her colleagues, the chief of district 7 Myrna Melgar expressed support for the plan. “It’s not some gift — it’s a payment or a long-deferred debt.”

Warden 4 Joel Engardio noted how agreements on racist acts in the West Side neighborhoods hampered blacks, including the baseball legend. Willie Maysfrom buying houses, while whites who bought property there during the same period benefited by orders of magnitude.

Engardio noted that the draft reparation plan “has dozens of recommendations that our budget can easily handle.”

Warden 8 Rafael Mandelman criticized the “overheated and irrational response” to the draft reparation plan, much of which focused on one of his more “beautiful” proposals to pay a lump sum of $5 million to every eligible black resident.

The proposal was specifically rejected by the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP in a statement released Tuesday evening. Instead, the civil rights organization has called for concrete investment in housing, education, health care and economic empowerment.

Final recommendations on the reparation plan will be presented to the Human Rights Commission, the mayor and oversight bodies in June. The Board will hear another update on September 19th.

Police Reform Update – With Consequences

Following was an update on the San Francisco Police Department/DOJ Joint Reform Initiative, focusing on the use of force, bias and other issues.

While the chief of police Bill Scott and its staff provided a relatively optimistic view of the department’s progress, reporting compliance with 245 of the initiative’s 272 recommendations, executives questioned the SFPD’s progress on specific issues.

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai noted the continued uneven distribution of regular foot patrols across the districts; Scott noted that the ongoing problems with SFPD staff being fired resulted in a deterioration in the sequence of steps in many corridors.

Warden 10 Shamann Walton and District 5 Inspector Dean Preston asked about ongoing issues with bias; Scott predicted that incidents of police bias would be significantly reduced once new general orders were enacted, including new rules on prepositional traffic stops.

These new rules are currently being discussed with the police union.

All three observers said they would have more questions about the matter on Wednesday, when the board’s committee on budget and appropriations hears an additional reward for Breed’s police. The hearing was extended until October for another update.

“Non-Police” Security Plan, TODCO, SVB Hearings

During roll call, Preston submitted a $10 million funding request for “several non-police public safety activities and programs” at Tenderloin, which can be seen as a counterpoint to Breed’s plan to increase police patrols.

This is enough to make you wonder if additional budget requests are pending, reflecting differing views on public safety.

Other notable new businesses include:

• Supervisory authorities Safai and Melgar have announced the drafting of a request for an ordinance to streamline the city’s building permit process to streamline housing development by reducing the number of departments involved to just the fire, planning and building inspection departments.

• Supervisor Safai is also issuing a letter of inquiry to the City Retirement Commission and other responsible agencies regarding any investment implications of the Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy.

And in case you’re wondering: Chief of the 9th District. Hillary Ronen The resolution urging the state to legalize sex work was again moved forward pending further discussions with colleagues. It is clear that this is not the end until Violetta sings.

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