Public Information- SF City Workers Making $100K+

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

----

This was a posting made on Craigslist in San Francisco.

It was flagged down (in error) by people that don't want us to know how much money is made by 8,000 San Francisco City Employees making over $100,000 per year totalling 800 Million Dollars. We posted this to show the contrast between the will of the people who want and need basic mental health and homeless services maintained for hundreds of San Francisan residents to Prevent Harm and decrease future costs (for overtime and other emergency and crisis expenses later after these people are left in the streets or without proper mental health care ).

The people making the budget decisions themselves, make over $100k a year and refuse to spend money on us, the elderly, poor and mentally ill residents.

Money spent on us are human investments to prevent harm, loss of life and future costs by NOT investing in our people, now. The return on investment is huge !

The budget these same $100k plus salaried city workers submitted budgets to our Mayor Gavin Newsom, for several hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Planned Over Time Wages, that ARE NOT included in their Regular Salaries.

The only SF City Department or Agency that DID NOT increase their planned overtime, was our Department of Health.

Obviously, since they have been spending more time and money to help improve the health of our elderly, poor and homeless, they did not expect to have to increase their department's over time costs.

Maybe the Department of Health understands this concept of human investment and prevention of predictable harm, sickness and death of our residents being put at risk by other City Officials and Departments that intend to MAKE MORE OVER TIME this year, compared to last year...

So, other City Workers, such as Fire, Police, Paramedics making $65,000 to $100,000 in Regular Salary could ALSO make an additional $50,000 or more in overtime.

Overtime and supplies expense that COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED if they decided to INVEST IN OUR POOR MENTALLY ILL AND HOMELESS RESIDENTS before they are put into harm's way or endangered by lack of care and investment, up front, to prevent harm and gross over time and emergency response expenses.

SHAME ON THEM ALL ! For details, please read the attached posting on NowPublic or CLICK HERE.

Click Here For The $800 Million Dollar Salary Details on NowPublic

Tags: San Francisco 800 million dollars budget cuts free speech homeless services homeless shelters hsa human services information making overtime pay Politics priorities public information public servants SALARIES streamlining government transparency in government workers World

Closing time - Buster's Place - SF's only 24 Hour Drop In Center Closed By Mayor Newsom- Who Hides from Open Meeting With Elderly, Disabled Homeless

San Francisco's Mayor Newsom shuts down San Francisco's only critical 24-hour homeless center which served mearly 150 women and men, elderly, disabled and poor residents.

The Mayor's proposed replacement (150 Otis Street) is short sided, at best. It has only a fraction of the capacity as Buster's Place and will NOT serve women, who are our residents at the greatest risk of abuse, rape and violence.

And Mayor Gavin Newsom actually 'locked the door' to the Mayor's Office, when these nice people came to talk to him, peacefully.

We all know from history, that the closing of Buster's Place will likely result in our very most 'at risk' residents (including veterans, women, elderly & frail) being put into harm's way immediately, with no safe place to go, especially at night.

Any man or woman trying to escape from domestic and elder abuse, drug dealers will be forced back onto the streets -- because they have no place to 'be' safe.

The same streets where untrained police officers often mistakenly 'handle' mentally ill people with 'command and control' techniques (read: roughing up, using intimidation and force) which triggers trauma and violent reactions (when applied to mentally ill human beings) which result in 'accidental' shootings and death to innocent people -- whom are mentally ill.



On the way to the rally held on City Hall stairs, we stood and watched for about 10 minutes as a resident was being taken into custody by two police officers.

It was obvious the man was 'high' on heroin (or methadone) and appeared to be slightly mentally ill or not in control of all his senses, like a stupor.

When one officer started to be too aggressive in his 'handling' of the man, the man reacted and shouted, hey 'stop that, you don't have to be so rough'.

That natural reaction caused the officers to 'get rougher' and they yelled at him; spun him around fast and 'slammed' him, face first, down onto the trunk of their police car.

This is called use of un-neccesary force because a well trained officer would have used another technique because the man was already handcuffed, and raised his voice but made no move to 'hit' an officer.

The man was merely vocally expressing his oposition to being 'roughed up' while he was already -- being compliant. It was a natural and predictable reaction when we feel threatened without cause by any man, but especially one with a badge and a gun.

Ignorant people can spin that to 'say' he was resisting arrest but he was not.

He not resisting arrest. He was 'at bay' during the pat down but he did resist the one officers' overly aggressive handling (that is an assault).

Now, had these officers been properly trained to deal with mentally ill and other persons unable to control themselves under stressful circumstances, they would have used completely different techniques, to safely get this man to comply.

They would have used smarter and wiser 'soft vocal tone' techniques to make the man feel safe, which almost always causes the subject to respond in kind.

It works like a charm. This is called 'de-escalation' which prevents violence and accidental death by officer shootings and police brutality.

Invariably, when force and intimidation are employed on people that are not prone to violence, they react violently because they are not used to being 'forced' or beaten into submission. They will resist.

When any self-respecting person is being 'pushed' by an overly aggressive person (police or otherwise) we will always defend ourselves and demand respect, even during a 'roust' or 'arrest'.

A wise, professional officer will acknowledge his own mistake and apologize and then everyone calms down.

An ignorant or violence prone officer (egotistical bully incapable of empathy of 'admitting fault') will NOT apologize.

Ignorant, bully-like or untrained officers often 'escalate' their use of intimidation and force which in turn, causes an escalation of violence leading to brute force and possible death by officer shooting.

Later, they will lie and say 'he was resisting arrest' and everyone else will cover it up because they are unable to admit when their own officers are the cause of escalating situations that could have been prevented, had wiser or

When smarter, higher level techniques are used that appeal to a person's intellect and logic, as they 'feel' safer, they are much more compliant and docile.

This is not rocket science. This is proven fact based on several generations of case studies in hundreds of communities.

So, when we arrived at City Hall, this is what we saw...

A fairly large group of men and women (elderly - leaders of the Gray Panthers, disabled and mentally ill) residents having a peaceful public rally on the steps of City Hall.

They were determined to excercise their right, during this life and death crisis, to meet face to face with the man that decided (without community meetings or public support) to put them and all San Franciscans, at great risk for no good reason other than 'it's the Mayor's Will'.

All they wanted was their right to redress the government which means to meet with the Mayor, face to face to talk and listen to each other about this matter.


But, just like last year, when families with children sought out the Mayor for leadership, guidance and support 'to talk' by 'knocking on his door' last year -- this week -- the elderly, mentally ill, poor and homeless residents tried to knock on his door to meet with him.

These sick, elderly, mentally & physically ill residents walked calmly through security and made their way up the stairs to go to the Mayor's Office, which is usually open to the public, during office hours.



They climbed up the stairs, very slow, calm and orderly. There was not rush. Why wouldn't the Mayor be in his office. We saw his car parked out front when the rally first started.

The Mayor's new homeless czar, Dariush Kayhan was sitting outside on the steps with the residents while they were getting ready to go inside, to meet with Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Surely if the Mayor was going to refuse to see us, he would have been kind enough to tell us that, before the people begin to walk up the stairs to his office.

Jennifer Friedenbach, Director of the Coalition on Homelessness had the microphone and was very reluctant to turn the mike over to Dariush Kayhan, when he asked to speak to the people gathered there.

The crowd started to protest and shouted 'let him speak', 'equal time', so she relented and gave him the microphone. He suggested that everyone go on over to the grassy knoll and 'talk about' the new 24 hour center being opened on April 1st, 2008. But, this crowd was well informed and already know that 150 Otis is NOT an equal replacement.

This is a 'taking' of safe spaces by the Mayor's Office, which is contrary to the 'will of the community' which is at the heart of this whole conflict. Decisions are being made without public participation and contrary to 'the good' of all San Franciscans.

Why would any public servant go down a path that is harmful, destructive, more expensive (because putting people in harm's way is very expensive for emergency response and innocent, desperate people die when you do this) and goes against the will of the entire community and the service providers that know all of this ?




So, they knocked and they knocked and they knocked but the door was locked right before they walked up the stairs, in a slow and orderly manner to the office door.


It's like that Phil Collins song.... 'who can it be knockin at my door.... tap, tap, tap.
... don't make a sound -- tip toe across the floor. If they hear us they'll knock all day... and here we'll have to stay.... oh, oh, who can it be now... who can it be now... '
After several minutes of knocking, it was clear that once again, the Chicken Mayor was afraid or unwilling to simply meet with the people his decisions were going to cause great risk and harm to.

That's when Abdallah, a homeless advocate who is elderly that has a letter from the Mayor's Office stating he has had several heart attacks and needs a place to be safe, such as Buster's Place.

He cannot stay in a shelter because he is in danger there because of his age, his health and his work to expose abuse in the shelters.

Again, Mayor Gavin Newsom apparently, did not have the desire; the free will or the courage to face the people -- whom are most dis-affected by his harmful and soon to be expensive decision to cut down the only 24 hour crisis center in San Francisco.

This is not good leadership, is it ?

Does Our Mayor work for 'himself' ? Does he work for the 2 largest shelter providers ? Are they holding private talks and meetings behind our backs ?

-- Historical Note: The Mayor told us in a press release, a few weeks ago, he wants to eliminate all shelters, except for those two -- MSC South and Next Door Shelters.

This will create an illegal, virtual monopoly for St. Vincent DePaul and Episcopal Community Services, whose shelters have been shown to not perform as well as shelters operated by Central City [ Hospitality House ] or the Dolores Shelter (which went from last place to near first because they regularly attended public meetings and work groups).

They actively 'worked with' the community to improve their shelters, even before the new standards were passed by our Supervisors. Next Door & MSC South have historically had the most outrageous and abusive complaints made by their residents (higher than the others on a per capita basis).

This means even though their shelters are larger, they had a disproportionately higher rate of complaints per person, than most all other shelters. This is per outreach talks with residents at all shelters and from the study of official government documents and reports).

So, why would anyone want to eliminate shelters that the people want; the people need; that are performing well ?

Why would anyone want to shut down the good shelters that are doing more with less and doing a better job than the other two largest shelters ?

THIS IS BACKWARDS AND CONTRARY TO APPARENT LOGIC, SO THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENING, BEHIND THE SCENES, THAT WE ARE NOT BEING MADE AWARE OF. THEIR (THE MAYOR, EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES, ST. VINCENT DEPAUL) PLANS DO NOT MATCH UP WITH WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT. THEY ARE ACTING AGAINST OUR OWN BEST INTERESTS. WHY ? FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL, POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL GAINS, WE SUPPOSE. FOLLOW THE MONEY....

Or does Mayor Gavin Newsom honestly and truly, work 'for the people' ?

He is Our Servant, isn't he ? Do we work for him or does he work for us ?

Wouldn't you fire servants on your payroll, if they refused to meet with you, face to face, to discuss life and death issues ?

He Our Mayor 'All-Knowing' ? Is he 'above' meeting with 'the people' ?

That smacks of arrogance doesn't it ?

And Mayor Newsom's office locked his door, to shut out the people most dis-affected, from meeting with him 'face to face', 'eye to eye' to discuss the matter.

Like a spoiled child. Anyone that 'runs away' must be sounding something like this:

'Waaaaaah! I don't wanna meet with those angry elderly and poor men and women.... Why don't they just all go away.... I don't know what to say to them.... Hey, I'm paying the homeless czar $160,000 bucks a year.

Why doesn't Dariush just take them over to go sit on the lawn, away from my office and deal with them.

I have more important things to do.... It's all about me.

I have more important things to do than meet with 'the people' that I serve.....'

Now we know why they call him 'the chicken Mayor'....

He cannot see how he is being perceive by his own people or he simply does not care. When a man cares about his people, he does not send out 'middle men' during a life and death crisis. He either walks out alone or with his right hand man (Dariush) to meet with the people, himself.

That is what a true leader would do. That is how you build trust.

That is how you lead. That is how you SHOW that you really do care. It's about standing up and meeting head on when you really do not want to. When it's scary. When it's difficult. That is how you measure a man in power.

Anyone can look and sound cool and be a 'hero' when times are going great. But, it takes real courage to step up to the plate when the chips are down... when the people are counting on YOU, as the elected leader to 'guide' them and comfort them and listen to them.

What is the only reasonable conclusion we can come to, when an elected leader hides from 'speaking' with the people when it's his own decisions that are harming them, in less than 50 hours from now.

Sadly, Mayor Newsom 'comes out' when he wants 'glory' and recognition in controlled press conferences (just like Bush) but when the going gets rough, he runs away like a child.

Disgusting, isn't it ?

Is that the right thing to do?

What would you do if you were Our Mayor ?

Leaders worth following do not fear 'the people'. Good Leadership is what we need to keep our community together.

DEFINITION: leadership

Main Entry: lead·er·ship

Pronunciation: \ˈlē-dər-ˌship\

Function: noun

Date: 1821

1 : the office or position of a leader
2 : capacity to lead
3 : the act or an instance of leading
4 : leaders leadership>

Good leaders at least sit down, talk and listen but not this type of 'superficial' leader. He hides when the topics are not to his liking.

He appears to have a great need to 'be in control' because of pride, ego, fear.... many of us, when we were young, ignorant and foolish, used to do that. Run away when others that were upset wanted to talk to us.

But, as we matured and gained wisdom. We learned to be honorable men and women that do not 'run away' from anyone. We stand up.

Even when we are sick, poor, disabled and homeless with no resources or luxuries or common comforts to speak of, what do we do ?

We have what's called R-E-S-P-E-C-T and D-I-G-N-I-T-Y and L-O-V-E which all work together to give us COURAGE.

The courage to stand up against all odds, to work together as one community, one voice and take back the reins of a chariot that is out of control.

If some of us have been abused and thrown out into the streets because we refuse to give in to fear and refuse to submit to abusive authorities than what kind of man.

What kind of human being, is our Mayor, who has wealth and fame and nice cars and a luxurious life far beyond what most us will see in our lifetimes.

How can a human being with 'so much' material wealth, be in such a state of mind to refuse to open his door (that we paid for) to talk with our elderly, poor, sick, mentally ill and women residents, who need his help now ?

Indeed, we are richer in spirit, richer in soul and have more heart and love than this man will ever have.

We need to find another man or women among us that truly shares our values of honesty, courage, respect, love and caring to replace this man who has shown his colors today. He is acting like a coward.

We are not saying he is a coward. Only he knows who he really is.

But, we are saying that his actions (or lack of appropriate action) show cowardice.

A true leader, when faced with the same situation, would 'rise above' the negativity and 'prove' that he is capable of courage by coming forward to meet personally, with the clients (former clients come victims of absue) of Buster's Place.

Actions speak louder than words.

Good Leaders Do Not Run Away Or 'Act Busy'Iin Order To Avoid The People They Serve, Especially In Times Of Crisis.

Very self serving behavior for an elected -- public servant.

SF may need a 'regime change' (recall election) to emplace someone with more courage to respect the people's right to 'converse' about issues, especially life and death issues, into that office. We need a Mayor that will NOT lock his doors when the people excercise their right to meet during a crisis.

What if a Father or Mother refused to meet with their children during a time of crisis ? Isn't this kind of shameful behavior -- that divides instead of unites a community ?

Think about it.

If you cut services that put the most 'at risk' members of your community into the streets, wouldn't YOU have the guts to at least come out, be a man, and speak with the people you were about to harm ?

That, ladies and gentlemen is the difference between 'substance' and 'superficiality'. It's the difference between 'being real' and 'being slick'.

Trust is an issue with this Mayor and This Administration. Refusing to meet with the people causes more distrust. Meeting with the people shows that you care and that you are willing to 'be there' 'with them' when the going gets tough.

They say, when the 'going gets tough' the 'tough get going' and the chickens run out the back door every time....

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Amanda Witherell of the SF Bay Guardian Gets it Right On Homeless

Hat's Off To Journalist Amanda Witherell and her colleague, Bryan Cohen of The San Francisco Bay Guardian for their Courage.

Their Recent Undercover Investigations of Tax Funded Home-less Shelters In San Francisco, Happened Right Before Our City's Board of Supervisors Were Starting To Vote On Shelter Standards Of Care.

Their report showed us all why these Standards of Care are vital because for almost 15 years, our non-profit contracted shelter providers and city agencies (like HSA, Human Services Agency) had failed to enforce existing contract requirements, let alone the fact that there were 'no real standards' of health, safety, hygiene, staff training being implemented, followed or enforced, in any of the 19 shelters and resource centers that serve close to 1,500 every day or every month in San Francisco.

They truly deserve nominations for The Pulitizer Prize for their in depth, unbiased, first-hand reporting.

They lived in the shelters to see, with their own eyes, all of the realities that lay in store for them inside our City's homeless shelters and resources centers.

Amanda and her colleague, Bryan went 'undercover' as homeless residents to see what was really happening inside our City's tax funded homeless shelter system.

They did not need to rely on any HSA Reports; Shelter Monitoring Committee Reports; press releases; glossy non-profit service provider promo videos; or even the homeless advocate reports from our Coalition On Homelessness, to come to their own conclusions about how our elderly, disabled, poor and home-less residents are 'really' being 'cared for' and treated at our tax funded, non-profit contracted shelter sites.

Public Officials, like Mayor Gavin Newsom seems to keep shutting down shelters (on short notice without stable replacements) and 24 hour 'drop in' centers like Buster's Place (which serves about 120 people a day) -- even through the whole City realizes that it's money well spent as 'human investments'.

In a recent press conference, the Mayor said he wanted to 'get out of the shelter business'.

We want to be fair to the Mayor. We believe that perhaps, he wants to 'do the right thing' but unless he already 'knows the truth' or has people around him that he can trust to 'tell him the truth' then he is going to keep making the same mistakes and mis-spending of money because he's being kept 'in the dark'. Maybe that is why it 'looks like' he's not 'up to speed' with what's really going on and been going on in our homeless shelters. Maybe EVERYONE that has been making money off of the abuse and captivity has been lying about it, to all of us.

Well, we say this because we can't believe that's what the Mayor meant to say, (about closing down all the shelters or all except two) because just as you need different size measuring cups to move ingredients from one place to the other, to make a proper cake, you need to have all of the assorted sizes of cups to measure out the ingredients properly or you end up with a mess.

Similiar to that example, each 'place' that a homeless, mentally ill, disabled, elderly or poor person has to have services to meet their needs as they change and become more 'stable'. It's not an 'either-or' proposition.

It's about 'quality', 'quantity' and value (performance) of the ingredients (resources) that go into the mix of 'taking care' of our people with their unique and diverse needs.

You can't decide to eliminate ingredients in a recipe that you do not like and expect to come out with a winning meal. Each ingredient must be 'balanced' in value and proportion to the other ingredients to make it all 'work together'.

If you try to bake a cake and the yeast is rotten, then you don't just stop using yeast...

No, you would replace the box of yeast or replace the supplier (if their products or services could not be trusted), but you would continue to work with each ingredient because they are all necessary for the entire recipe to work.

We must have places for people to go that are safe and humane. Shelters are just one necessary step. It's part of a larger pipeline.

Others are transitional housing, SRO's and supportive housing and in certain cases, some sort of medical 'respite'.

Some people, no matter if they are on the streets or in an SRO or shelter or friend's couch, need a safe place to go, like a 24 hour center, even if its just a few nights a month to 'get away' and 'be safe' from bad or hostile home environment.

However, it's a continuous 'path' moving people from streets all the way to affordable housing which means not everyone should be at the 'same' type of place or need all services offered.

Every one has different needs, but what they all have in common, is the need and the right to be safe and taken 'good care' of, for as long as needed, at any place they go to.

One cannot replace the 'shelter beds' with 'respite' beds or 24 hour drop in center chairs; it's not like that. Each place and each type of place has it's own unique set of resources and fills certain needs.

What Is A Monopoly ?
Monopoly (economics), economic situation in which only a single seller (or 1 or 2 sellers) or producers supply a commodity or a service.

For a monopoly to be effective, there must be no practical substitutes for the product or service sold, and no serious threat of the entry of a competitor into the market. This enables the seller to control the price.



Wiping out competition & resident's choices, by City Officials expressing a desire to 'close all shelters' except the two largest (which would create a grotesque monopoly or bi-monopoly, leaving us all with just 2 shelter providers) shelter providers, that have not performed, nearly as well, as their smaller non-profit competitors) is like some sort of a 'non-profit' mad dictator's dream.

It surely does NOT represent the will of the people and residents that live and work at all the shelters, resource centers, and service provider facilities.

It smells like cheese, say the latino residents.

That means it's bad for everyone and the real motives or reasons are either not clear or are not being given to us, or they do not exist.

Investments made by us now, in standards and true shelter reform, will give us great returns because it insures the health, safety and enabling of our residents to get through the shelters, faster, onto their next step.

That's a lot cheaper than paying for preventable 'premium' costs associated with emergency response and treatment of people, later, who are 'loose in the streets' that need our help but have no place to go to 'be safe' because of short sided budget cuts.

We're talking about a couple hundred people a day, (elderly, disabled, mentally ill and women) at risk, due to our Mayor's 'cuts' -- to the only 24 hour center we have.

These short sided cuts perpetuate cycles of much higher costs (later) due to gross overtime pay to police, fire and medical response personnel, who's services could have been shifted elsewhere, if we had more shelter beds and 24 hour centers.

It's a no-brainer... but no one except a few 'elected servants', as seen by their own press releases and speeches, appear to want to keep putting the cart in front of the horse and they cannot seem to articulate 'reasons' behind the cuts... they just repeating repeating 'we have ot make the cuts' like trained parrots or puppets.

Who is pulling their strings to run up costs (misuse of our tax money and community donations) and cause us more suffering, instead of just doing 'what the people want'.

Which is -- to save tax money and prevent harm, suffering and premature death or aggravation of mentally ill residents. ???

Whose money is it, anyway ?

It's not the Mayor's money, it's Our Money.

We all pay these taxes, so why isn't it being spent according to Our Will ?

If we want to spend the money now to help people and save a lot more that won't have to be spent on emergency and crisis services later, why can't we ?

Makes no sense when they are unable to 'tell us' why and give us sound reasons for the ridiculously expensive cuts to Buster's Place, shelter beds and mental health services.

Is someone actually profitting politically or monetarily off the backs (and the blood) of our City's homeless ?

Are 'special interest groups' trying to 'stop us' from preventing harm and putting our own people at risk, because 'they' a small number of service providers or emergency services and city workers are 'making a ton of money' in preventable overtime pay ?

Is that what this is all about ? We know we can greatly reduce overtime pay and premium emergency response and treatment costs (and reduce crime!) by taking good care of our elderly, poor, sick, veterans and homeless residents now, instead of waiting until they are 'abandoned' and thrown out to the streets which will result in more injury, sickness, crime, emergency response and possible accidental death by officer shootings.

So, tell us again, why are we NOT spending the money up front now, as an investment ?

Why are we shutting down the only 24 hour center we have ?

Why is the Mayor and the HSA Director Trent Rohrer, slashing away a million dollars worth of 'slightly' mentally ill health care services ?

And why are we NOT holding individual cheaters, thieves, abusers and drug dealers working on staff at some shelters and resource centers accountable for their wrong doing ?

And why are we not encouraging 'clean' shelter operators to come and bid for new 24 hour centers, shelters and resource centers ?

Oh. We almost forgot. What about those SRO's (Single Room Occupancies) that are being used as psuedo-apartments ? We are seeing some 'new ' ones, that look like someone took a single studio and chopped it into two new 'micro' studios.

We all wonder how many of our City's SRO's are doing electrical work and tearing open abestos filled walls, WITHOUT THE PROPER BUILDING PERMITS and WITHOUT A QUALIFIED, LICENSED CONTRACTOR....

Kind of like building little cell-like boxes to warehouse people in. I bet someone is making a fortune off of these 'deals' that result in more people being given less space, and their human rights, dignity and 'comfort' and health are being stripped away like a banana peel in the hot sun.

We look forward to more reports like these from this 'duo' of journalists in the future and if we could only get more journalists in the Bay Area to follow your lead and give us 'the facts' so that as a community, we can decide what's best for ourselves without all the lying, cheating, corruption and selfishness ...

Have A Great Weekend. Stay Safe Wherever You Are !

NowPublic

Tags: ada | harm | San Francisco | 24 hour drop in | Abuse | amanda witherell | buster's place | dignity and respect | disease prevention | dph | elderly | Health | homeless | homeless shelter | hsa | human investment | lack of standards | MONOPOLIES | non-profits | real life | risk | sfbg

Will San Francisco's Elected Servants Stand Up For Free Speech And Human Rights In China Or Not ?

San Francisco, California USA - Tuesday March 25, 2008, City Hall

That is the question on a lot of people's minds these dark days, we all watch -- as China rounds up, tortures & murders their own people and Tibetans, for global fame and political & corporate gains.

Will the elected servants of San Francisco, stand up as people all around the City and the World are, to stop the abuse, torture and murder of innocent human beings ?

Right now, it's about 2pm in San Francisco.

Loud demonstrations (of free speech) are happening in front of San Francisco's City Hall ...

Let's reverse roles using 'What If's, so maybe you too, can somehow 'feel' what thousands of innocent Chinese and Tibetan people are going through, today!

What If ...

San Francisco were about to be hosting the Olympics this year and we had a bunch of peaceful demonstrators protesting in front of City Hall, like we do today ...

Can you imagine what we would all be feeling... if we saw Homeland Security Officers arrive below Mayor Newsoms' Office, on the public sidewalks and started gassing, beating and later torturing and killing all the peaceful San Franciscans who were peacefully assembled, speaking their minds ?

What If ...

Bush's Homeland Security did these crimes against our humanity and our rights and freedoms, under some trumped up -- unconstitutional declaration of martial law ?

That is exactly what is being reported to us, by a wide variety of first hand observers, in China, right now. China is now, one of the bloodiest human and 'civil' rights violators, in the world.

Bush's people are a few steps behind them, since they also continue to torture, waterboard, kidnap and kill people labelled and 'targeted' as 'terrorists', only because they wish to be free of foreign military occupation or radical imperialism, expensively disguised as 'democracy'.

Saddam Hussein was sort of an impotent marionette (trained and supported by Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney & Co. with nerve gas, etc.) by comparison to this raging tiger that has maimed, killed and imprisoned millions of innocent human beings, over the past 25 years or more.

And Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, he hated Bin Laden.

Yet by, NOT being aware & NOT standing up for what is right -- we all become accomplices to the murder they do, in the name of Our United States. They're doing it not only in Iraq & Afghanistan and China & Darfur.

We just heard Barack Obama was quoted as saying, to the effect, that he would support some sort of limited withdrawal of our betwixted soldiers, but would maintain our forces there (drones?) until some time in the future with the usual excuses of providing security (our security company mercenaries, kill innocent Iraqis, every day).

So, now we have no candidate for President that will insure a swift and complete withdrawal of all military personnel. It does not look like Hillary or Barack believe, as most decent human beings do.

This seems to be what a majority of amercans (and good people everywhere) believe is the right thing to do when you 'make a mistake'.

If you start an illegal war, install a President with 'jerry-rigged" elections and do almost non-existent investigation of 'controlled demolition' of the towers, the 'non-existent 757', at the pentagon (which Cheney slipped and spoke about 'missile incident' in reference to WTC attacks, ooops!) -- you have offended the world and must be brought to justice.

All acts committed after the commencement of an illegal war must be vacated. We need to say 'Sorry, good people of Iraq. We must leave your Holy Lands, so all your people may live in peace again, and stop all terrorist activity. Al Queda can leave Iran and go back to their own home now. '

Terrorists invariably disband when foreign armies leave. They go back to work because their mission has been accomplished. They rarely, historically, follow anyone anywhere because they were only formed for one purpose and one purpose only. Unite to drive out foreign occupation, period.

So, in San Francisco, we appear to have some people who cannot come down on the humane side of this coin. This is not a three sided coin.

You really either overlook and support terrorism by individuals and groups in a government or you expose and prosecute by social, economic, political and only if necessary, police action because you are a person that firmly believes, the torture, kidnappings, renditions and genocide (by Military drones that have no conscience, no soul and no ability to NOT overkill anyone, at any time, in secret) must stop now, for real.

There's no going 'halfway' on the issues of torture, murder and virtual economic or physical slavery of any human being ( and sterilization - click here now to look up Bush and Eugenics (forced sterilization of school children in the Carolinas, on google. )

Nazis were smuggled into the USA by good 'ol boys like Bush and his fiends, in violation of a Presidential Order against Nazis, coming to Amerika.

The Nazis brought us 'planned obsolescence' engineering to stop you from buying quality products that lasted a life time, like cars, washing machines, refrigerators. They also went heavy into weapons, arms and mass programming propaganda - research and development, science and medicine.

And let us not forget that the UN purchased a 'vaccine' (from 100 different laboratories..) that was administered for years to women in 130 countries. An expensive 'hormone' was laced into those vaccines, causing nearly ALL women vaccinated to become sterile.

It was no accident. Millions of women around the world, were sterilized by the health people from the U.N. for ten years. How could they NOT KNOW.

Click here to see how some individuals in our world government (UN) and billionaires like Bill Gates and Ted Turner are spending billions on 'mandatory' vaccines forced onto children, around the world.

China has 'company' with other so called 'world leaders' that appears to all favor using force, including forced sterilization of children and women, torture, kidnapping, mass propaganda (with only 5 company executives controlling nearly all national and local newspapers, airwaves, cable, production and broadcasting in the US) and murder, as a means of silencing your rights and promoting their interests solely, at your expense and risk of loss of life.

You see, when it comes to our need for 'standards of decency' and 'free speech' rights where reasonableness and humanity are 'the enforced law', we can no longer allow law breakers to profit by our endorsement, support or patronage or apathy, in any way.

By 'doing business' or by continuing to give them contracts and our tax payer and private money, that makes us all complicit in their crimes because we make a choice, to chose to enable profit and derive profit by 'doing business' with murders and torturers.

Global sporting events are big business. Tourism, manufacturing, weapons, shipping, oil companies all profit greatly by the Olympics in the short and long term.

Either we choose to keep our hands clean of the blood of our fellow humans, or we can continue to prop up and otherwise support those who may or may not stop their murderous ways in the future, maybe.

What If ... you knew knew Jeffrey Damner was eating young boys and he was hosting a party and a sporting event at his home, what would you do ?

Would you choose to expose and attack his sadistic cannibalism to protect more innocents from dying today ?

Or, would you say, 'Gee, maybe if we are nice to poor Jeffrey, he will decide to stop eating people on his own ?

Do you see how ridiculous and disgusting it is for any elected official or leader decide to keep doing 'business as usual' in the hopes they'll 'change' -- makes us all a party to murder. We cannot keep failing to recognize a legitimate emergency called 'genocide' and TAKE ACTION.

TODAY -- BEFORE ANOTHER SOUL IS MAIMED, TORTURED OR KILLED, ANYWHERE BUT, ESPECIALLY IN CHINA, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN AND DARFUR ?

This is not rocket science. This is called; do you have a clear conscience or are you corrupted and deceived ?

Do you have the backbone to stand on your own convictions even if that means a risk or sacrifice to you or your good neighbors ?

The trick is to get these deceptive 'compromise' messages (resolutions) that DO NOTHING and have no sincerity or power because they allow the torture and murders to keep happening, not to mention, adding billions of dollars to the Chinese Officials, who are doing the torture there.

So, with billions more from the world, they can buy more sophisticated technologies (gee, maybe from companies run by Bush's 20,000 mercenaries and groups like Halliburton, DBT Technologies, Aegis Security, F.A.C.E.S., neo-con weapons dealers, et al) to enable China's Masters, to improve upon their ability to identify, enslave, torture and eradicate hundreds of thousands of people, that just want their human rights and the right to express an opinion, without being tagged as 'an enemy' that must be destroyed.

Well, San Francisco. What's it going to be ? What it comes down to is courage. The courage of one's conviction which is the essence of being an honest human being that is capable of empathy and compassion for another, like a true American Patriot.

Many of our forefathers and past human & civil rights leaders would not think twice about this issue. Any decent human being would cut off all 'profit and benefit' ties with anyone that tortured and murdered innocent people and lead the fight today, to save lives now. That would be the truly right and American (and human) thing to do.

There can only be one right choice. 'fence straddling' or 'compromise' are unacceptable when it comes to something as critical as deciding whether or not to stop supporting abuse, murder and torture of any innocent human being, in any way, shape or form. Period.

Further, it actually seems to be a moral obligation, as a human being, and at the cost of most any risk, peril or loss to ourselves (when people care they sacrifice something) to do whatever we can -- TODAY, to speak up clearly to peacefully intervene by using our voices, to prevent another act of torture of another human being, right now.

The life of an innocent human being is priceless. Apathy or mediocrity is not an excuse to continue to support systematic genocide or your failure to proactively attack and prosecute -- any person, group or 'government', in any part of this world, that continues the mindless acts that are engaged en masse, right now, in China.

We see our Mayor Gavin Newsom; Board of Supervisor Member Chu, all trying to somehow 'justify' why they are not 100% condemning of the Olympics being held there, but rather trying to do some 'disneyland' verbage that to many is tacit support to go ahead, and let the murderers profit, instead of doing what any other human being would do.... which is expose the abuse, stop the cash flow and try to save lives today.

Ad Monopolies in San Francisco Destroying Diversity-Corporate Control

When BART/MUNI Stations (and other public locations and thoroughfares) were first designed and 'sold' to us we were promised ample space for local ads, public service announcements, etc. and some corporate advertising.

These spaces used to be reflections of widespread diversity that mirrors our community. It was done well. We used to see lithographs of local artists' works in these spaces, now and again. These spaces used to promote community interests.

The way the ads were managed used to be of some benefit to the entire community not just catering to the messages of a small group of corporate monopolies.

Public Service and Community Event Ads Kept us informed. These spaces gave us some competitive choices, in general, and shared spaces with corporate vendors.

They gave us all opportunities for space to be used by all sizes of competing organizations from government agencies promoting public safety campaigns; and included messages from a diverse array of private, public and non-profit sectors.

These spaces were often interesting and positively stimulating to look at, while on the way to and from somewhere when walking, busing or riding the underground trains.

Now, it appears (like a bad dream from a twilight zone episode) that our City Officials have 'sold us all out' and allowed gross monopolistic corporations to 'take away' all of our open and free space. No more diversity. No more community interests being served.

Check out these photos from a MUNI/BART Station that had hundreds of ads on all walls, columns, poster boards and even the floor, all for the SAME PRODUCT. DISGUSTING.

No more local ads. No more competition. No more ads from 'small businesses'.

No more 'free choices' for our people. Just product ads being crammed into every centimeter of our view by a handful of multi-national corporations that are about the only ones able to afford paying for these spaces.

Bus stops, public transit areas, trains, buses, garbage cans, sides of buildings and moving trucks with dangerously distracting video.

Is that why Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to 'take away' all of our trash cans, a few months back ? To us, it meant more trash and messier streets because of the lack of trash cans. Is he now going to 'come back' to save the day with scores of 'new' trash cans plastered with this disgusting monopolistic corporate advertising ?

YOU ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO HAVE ANY CHOICE OF WHAT IS PUT IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN EYES.... very disturbing to say the least and a real revenue killer for all local people and comany's because any money spent on what's now put on almost all spaces, leaves the state and never really comes back.

That's where SF's $300,000,000 dollar budget 'deficit' must have come from.

Corrupted Policy Decisions, in which our City gave away billions of dollars in resources, land, property development, power, contracts, labor and all the 'out-of-town' corporations, who took our money and never re-invested or circulated any significant portion of all that SF Money that is now, gone with the wind...

Bad planning when you 'give away the farm' to a bunch of eastern carpet baggers and southern and Texas thieves..... of course our local economies (City and State) are going to be decimated because our City Officials forget to make sure all deals resulted in the majority of our expenditures and purchases, are recirculated locally, by utilizing local talent and suppliers and developers, loyal to California and San Francisco...


HERE'S A FEW SHOTS, FROM THE ATTACHED FULL ARTICLE, OF THE GILLETTE MACH III RAZOR ADVERTISING BOMBARDMENTS, AT ONE BART/MUNI STATION AT POWELL OR MONTGOMERY:

How Sad ... How absolutely Orwellian.

San Franciscans and people in other local urban areas need to ban together to take back the crap about Corporations being able to use psuedo 'Constitutional Free Speech Rights' to destroy our, sovereign, individual rights.

The Constitution was created to protect Individuals, not 'special interest groups', especially in situations of conflict where 'groups' try to usurp the natural, common law and rights of even a single individual Citizen.

All the powers of any 'group' formed by The People, all come 'from' the people (like associations and corporations). All authorities, ,rights, powers and privileges originate from the will of the The People, in the very first place.

Therefore, Our Individual Rights are supreme to all others in such conflicts of competing interests; The People's Rights must be honored and protected, first.

Corporations and governments', are secondary and truly inferior, as they are 'allowed' to have assigned rights that come from The People, thus our rights need to be re-asserted as being sovereign and put into its rightful place, as superior to all others when confronted with these monopolies and special interests groups.

Especially, since our Supreme Courts have failed us by giving corporations a value that is superior to us and to our detriment and loss. This is a Great Fraud that has allowed corporations to abuse process and force us to endure the erosion of our own freedoms while they take away community resources, space and cash away from all of us, for their own personal gain.

WAKE UP SHEEPLE !!

NowPublic

Tags: freedom | 1984 | Advertising | Art | Board of Supervisors | CBS | Clear Channel | community reources | control | control issues | corporate greed | corrupt deregulation | Culture | embarcadero | fake rights of corporations | false choices | free choice | free space | loss of sight

Homeless Shelter Standards of Care Passed by San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 9 to 2 Vote Today !

Well, it's official. On a Vote taken today, at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Meeting in Chambers, the long awaited homeless shelter 'Minimum Standards of Care' has been passed into City Law, by a Vote of 9 Members in favor with 2 Members opposed. Here is the Cover Text introducing the legislation which is touted as being one partial solution to insuring that anyone staying in a tax funded homeless shelter, in San Francisco, shall be treated with Dignity & Respect, as a matter of undeniable, enforceable law (the will of The People).

	Recommendations of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee
		Present: Supervisors Peskin, Ammiano, Maxwell

14.	071518	[Standards of Care for City Shelters]	Supervisors Ammiano, Mirkarimi, Peskin, Daly, Maxwell

VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' MEMBERS WHO SPONSORED THIS LEGISLATION The Vote was 9 Board Members in favor (they 'get it') and 2 Board Members opposed ('don't get it') to this legislation. *Aaron Peskin is President of this Board. We will post the details on the voting here as soon as we get them.... VERY SPECIAL 'WHAT'S UP WITH YOU' TO THESE SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' MEMBERS WHO OPPOSED THIS LEGISLATION [ Details just arrived.... these 2 BOS Members (shown below) Voted AGAINST This Community Will Driven Legislation ... hopefully, they will become enlightened and join us next time... Or, have the courage to 'think independently' and 'do the right thing even if someone else is trying to tell them otherwise... ] March 18, 2008 - 2PM - Public Meeting/Hearing San Francisco City Hall - Board of Supervisors' Chambers In addition to requiring 'Dignity & Respect' for all City shelter residents, as a matter of law; this new legislation also provides for many basic hygiene, safety and staff training requirements in what can only be described as a 'future cost prevention' investment in the human beings that live and work in our City's Shelters. Our City's Shelter and Resource Centers serve approximately 1,500 San Francisco residents that are poor, elderly, disabled and veterans who do not have a safe place of their own, to call 'home', every day of the year. A public, community 'work group' was tasked with the writing of this legislation more than nine months ago, by the City's Shelter Monitoring Committee (SMC) which inspects and reports on tax funded shelter conditions to the City & the People of San Francisco. This 'Standards of Care', community work group was comprised of a ton of people from all walks of life, color of skin, economic status, religions and backgrounds. Their 'common ground', as San Franciscans, is that they are all dedicated serving the needs of San Franciscan residents that are in great need of widespread community support to enable them to 'make it' to 'their next step'. Whether that 'next step' be obtaining social services, applying for veterans' benefits, reconnecting with family and work contacts, job searches, vocational training, medical services, substance abuse program enrollment or whatever -- every shelter resident has the right to be able to have 8 hours of peaceful rest, clean drinking water, nutritious food, respectful and qualified staff, clean and sanitary living conditions, transportation and access to electricity for their cell phones and medical deivces. That has NOT been happening at most of our shelters, for the past 15 years due to a lack of standards, lack of 'caring culture' and general lack of dilligent government and community oversight. On the contrary, they have been notoriously neglectful and abusive which was a 'dirty little secret' in this City until our Civil Grand Jury and later our SMC started reporting to us, about the Real Conditions of our multi-million dollar shelter and housing systems (including SRO's which is another topic for a later date). This 'very diverse' group of work group participants, met regularly and attended some 44 meetings over nine months. This ongoing 'Standard of Care' Work Group is comprised of several SMC members including the current SMC Chairperson Quintin Mecke (a well known homeless, affordable housing & safety advocate who ran for Mayor of San Francisco last year); SMC Member James Lenard (an advocate, former local business owner, investigator and homeless shelter resident, who first moved to the Bay Area in 1978); and several other homeless shelter residents; staff; and directors from Dolores Shelters, Central City Hospitality House, Next Door, Episcopal Sanctuary, Episcopal Community Services and St. Vincent DePaul's MSC South Shelters; and community advocates such as Jennifer Friedenbach, Director of the SF Coalition on Homelessness and concerned City Staff from the Department of Public Health (Dr. Deborah Borne, Director of Tom Waddell Clinic) and numerous other individuals all came together 'as one' using a consensus model to hammer out this legislation. The only persons missing from this community table (before) was direct and consistent representation from the Mayor's Office and the Human Services Agency which had oversight over these shelters, in the form of 'contract compliance'. The residents' complaints were revealed in the Coalition on Homelessness' 'Shelter Shock Report' and the SMC's findings all concurred that 'compliance' to existing laws and contracts were virtually non-existent in most of our City's homeless shelters for many years. Widespread abuse. No accountability for bad conduct and the theft of food, supplies and donations. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars here, folks ... every year ! No transparency in the complaint process. No communication back to the residents about status of conditions, repairs, et cetera. Noone working at these shelters really very often 'got fired' or were fined or had their contracts taken away, they all just kind of moved over to another shelter or onto another 'program' with a new name. It was a 'dirty little secret' that included plaintiffs in court cases being 'bought off' with pretrial settlements which kept it hidden from the public eye. There was very little earnest and factual local news coverage (like from The Chronicle who only gives shallow information and regularly uses a sports writing 'columnist', named C.W. Nevius, who is not a journalist to report on shelter conditions. They use these biased articles to paint false little 'pretty picture' reports to cover up the true nature of these shelters which were horrendous). One health official recently described our tax funded City shelters as dangerous 'petri dishes' which pose a great health risk to all San Franciscans. Instead of our City Servants showing wisdom, courage and leadership, by spending a couple million dollars, up front, to 'prevent problems and reduce harm and risk' they prefer to keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency response and crisis services (such as overtime for police, fire and medical personnel) after the fact. It's a gross reflection of how many people are making money by NOT doing the right thing. It's corruption that results in perpetuating harm, abuse, theft and encourages a system that causes us all great harm and loss, every year because they are making money while we all suffer. It's disgusting and violates the public trust, yet, for some reason, they are unwilling to change their evil and despicable ways, which is why 'the people' have decided to 'do right' with or without help from City Officials. However, over all of these years, there have been reliable newspapers such as The Street Sheets (written by people experiencing homelessness and abuse) and the SF Bay Guardian (whose dedicated professional journalists recently went undercover to expose abuses and lack of contract enforcement -- just a couple weeks ago) and even the SF Weekly and others have a history of reporting these abuses, as they really are and were. The homeless in San Francisco were so tired of not being believed and not being protected that they started their own SFHomeless Yahoo! Group and blogs (this blog you are reading now, is their brain child) in order to bring real stories and real photos of shelter conditions to the forefront of the minds of all San Franciscans, every day. The goal was to bring reality of the widespread abuse, theft and waste of tax payer dollars and human lives onto every desktop, laptop and cell phone in San Francisco, to put an end to the lies, the profiteering and the cover-ups that have been going on for 15 years. They had no idea that the 'whole world' would be watching their web site and blogs. They have done well considering the fact that not only do all kinds of local homeless and city and non-profit service provider staff visit the Yahoo! Group and Blog sites, but also individuals and groups from around the state and around the nation also vist to find out what's going on in San Francisco. Including poverty law centers and homeless and housing service providers on the east coast and the northwest (Oregon, Washington). Amazingly enough, there are also regular visitors from other countries that visit these sites to learn about how 'things are done' in San Francisco with respect to its poor, elderly, disabled and ill residents and see how tax dollars and community donations and resources are being used (or misused) by City Agencies and Non-Profit Service Providers. Even a nationally recognized law school (from back East) Masters Program Student, has been visiting and using the SFHomeless Yahoo! Group site for a study in how the internet can empower even low income people to enable them to speak out and defend their human, civil and legal rights. Especially when government agencies and non-profit providers fail to 'do their duty' and cause harm to people that need real help, not systematic abuse and exploitation. Over the past few years, homeless shelter residents have continuously complained about the lack of access to the most basic of things, such as being allowed to plug in a cell phone, to maintain contact with family and employers and the growth of mold in bathrooms and showers. One shelter has had 'black water' leaking into their basement cafeteria for years; dripping right next to and sometimes on to the food and condiments being served to residents (whom are often already sick and elderly at risk persons that deserve much safer and better care). Whenever it rains or the street cleaners go by or even during heavy fog, the condensation gathers from the sidewalk above and eventually drips down as bacteria laden black water into the main basement dining room. Several times, the condiment table was directly under this 'black water drip' and this nasty water dropped into the bins of sugar, creme and coffee cups of the shelter residents. Many of them were so tired and hungry they did not even notice this. Over the years shelter residents have complained about some of the shelters being used to manufacture and sell drugs; one shelter in circa 2001 purportedly was manufacturing methamphetamines in the shelter's industrial kitchen every night, while the shelter residents were asleep on the floors above. Had that 'secret' tax payer funded 'meth lab' exploded, it could have harmed or killed several hundred homeless residents in the blink of an eye. They reported daily verbal and physical abuse at some shelters, but supervisors, staff and even directors would accuse the homeless of 'being mentally ill', drug addicts, liars or whatever to hide the bad behavior of their own staff and supervisors themselves. Many of whom are family members because the shelters do not use hiring standards to screen out bad people and routinely hire relatives (nepotism). Real nonsense because in the first place, most homeless people are already suffering a trauma, so they tend to 'not' want to be a whistleblower and are grateful to be off of the streets, at first. They have bigger things on their minds than to run around making up stories and risking themselves to be abused or denied services in retaliation for their 'whistleblowing'. That's just common sense to begin with. Once people are abused by people that make a salary from our tax dollars, they get angry and start speaking out. To anyone that would listen. But, many city employees are 'jaded' and 'biased' against the homeless, so noone was really listening to their complaints.... The have preconceived notions and tended to lump all 'homeless people' into one category or set of attributes which is jsut as ridiculous and ignorant as saying that all 'white people' or all 'black people' or 'asians' or 'christians' or 'muslims' are all 'the same'. It takes a little work for any of us to make sure we see and treat people as 'individuals' instead of stereotyping them, but that is where we find reality, based on looking at every person, as a unique individual no matter what 'group' they happen to be in or part of. It served no purpose and there is no need for them to lie, at all. They mostly want to be left alone and they'd just keep to themselves if it wasn't for the fact that the abuses and thefts are so widespread and became common enough for them to get very upset about it, every day ! We discovered that a lot of the people that accused the homeless of making up these reports were actually 'bad actors' and haters that were 'part of' the abuse, the drug dealing and the grand thefts. They lied to cover hide the truth from public view and scrutiny. That's why so many 'street homeless' have refused to go into the shelter and housing systems here. That is why they do not trust our City Agencies. They do not trust our 'church' affiliated and community based non-profits. They is why they do not trust our Mayor or other politicians. Had these shelters been operating with 'good care' and 'proper oversight' more homeless would not be homeless and suffering today. And more 'street people' would be totally supportive and willing to go into shelters and housing systems because they can see 'good things' happening. But, over the years, they all saw abuse, assaults, drug dealing and general chaos and violence that has been San Francisco's shelter, housing & homeless services environment which has cost us all, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and who knows how many lives have been lost, due to preventable and predictable causes. Things like obese people being denied extra mats or larger beds because the metal edges cut off their circulation. Lack of ventilation which can trigger respiratory illness and loss of breathing resulting in sudden death. Lack of ventilation which can also lead to advancement of TB and other air borne diseases that can also result in permanent disease or premature, preventable death. The stress level of a person with high blood pressure being screamed at by unqualified, 'gangland' type shelter staff and not being allowed to sleep 8 hours can trigger a stroke or heart attack. If you try to 'force' or 'yell at' mentally ill people to 'do what you want' that can trigger a violent, mental episode when it would be better to have qualified, trained and sensitive staff deal with them in ways that will de-escalate conflict and prevent harm. It's about 'caring' and about 'being qualified' and about 'being specially trained' to deal with people that 'are not like you are'. Lack of proper nutrition and food portions (calories) can trigger malnutrition, fatigue, heat stroke and other ailments that are much more expensive to treat, as an emergency response (such as police/fire/medics working on overtime pay) when all that was needed was to fully fund adequate Standards of Care. Spending the money, up front, as a totally affordable (at any invesment amount, whether it be $93 per person per year or $500 per person per year) human investment because it Saves Lives and Saves Tax Money by preventing problems before they happen.... They were served lousy food in very small portions. Oftentimes, their bread was stale and moldy while staff sat at their stations eating fresh chicken and ribs. One cook was reported by several kitchen volunteers to have been putting ex-lax and other substances into the shelter resident's meals. And that cook was reportedly selling drugs, stealing food by the case and 'stressing out' the female residents... all at the same shelter !! When they complained too much, some shelter staff would deny the residents coffee, sugar or refused to serve them seconds, even when they had lots of food to spare. Food stocks were stolen on a regular basis and was being sold at three or four locations around the Tenderloin and out in the Filmore Neighborhoods (on the streets and resold to local stores and markets that resold the food to unsuspecting customers). Even some screwed up residents were part of organized rackets to steal food and 'sneak it out' in trash cans and back packs. We even suspected some staff were stealing food and preparing meals in shelter kitchens for their own catering businesses on the side. Again, this is grand theft of tax money and community donations. The courageous shelter residents that 'stood up' and 'spoke out' were routinely 'denied services' and thrown out of shelters on trumped up charges. Many shelters have no hiring standards or drug testing. They routinely hired friends, relatives and neighbors to maintain 'control' over shelter operations and the continuous theft of food and clothes that were purchased with tax dollars or donated to the shelters. Instead of making sure the residents got good care, decent food, clothing and shelter, the supervisors and staff would 'take all the good stuff for themselves' and leave the scraps behind for the 'captive' shelter residents. That has been the legacy and history of homeless shelters in San Francisco. As we move forward, lets keep in mind that many of the people that stole and abused our people and resources are STILL EMPLOYED at some of these shelters; resource centers and even at our non-profit housing service provider organizations. To stop this 'never ending cycle' we must completely change all of these systems. We must develop shelter, homeless and housing staff hiring standards, drug testing and apply 'zero tolerance policies' for the theft and misuse of donations, clothing, food and resources; and stop the abuse of shelter residents. Otherwise, nothing will change and we'll keep seeing the same homeless people being held 'captive' by these shelters and hanging out in the streets and parks and jails and hospitals; all costing us many times as much money in taxes, to accomplish very little. Now is 'the time' for all 'Good & Honest San Franciscans' to come together, as 'one community, one voice, one free will' to change this entire corrupt system, from the ground up, to benefit all San Franciscans. So, today is a historic day in the history of 'How San Francisco Treats It's Homeless Residents in 2008', with the passage of new homeless shelter 'Standards of Care'. This is the beginning of an era where Our People are finally putting an end to the abuse, the lies and the coverups that have caused tens of thousands of people to suffer, alone and often in forced silence, during these past 15 years of these kinds of 'shelter operations'. We have a lot more work to do. And yes, this legislation has been 'watered down' and reduced in cost down to about $93 per year, per person, but it is a big step, in the right direction. Yes, our homeless residents are still 'captive' because one of the most important provisions, the bus tokens (or discounted Muni Passes which would have cost half as much as HSA stated in their bogus, misleading reports on this legislation) was ripped out, apparently to appease our Mayor Gavin Newsom and some Agency Directors and Department Heads who apparently do NOT want our homeless residents to be enabled to 'make it' to their required and necessary appointments on time using public transportation. At least, that is what we believe because 'Trent Rohrer' (current Director of SF's Human Services Agency, aka HSA) stated in a public meeting last month, of the 10 Year Plan Council, that he did not make these stupid budget cut decisions, but it 'was his Department Heads' that made these decisions. Not himself (Trent Rohrer) and not The Mayor...' They all seem to lie, so we really do not know which of them (Trent Rohrer, Mayor Gavin Newsom and some of their representatives and employees) which is a huge part of the problem. They have not been meeting regularly with our Board of Supervisors. They have not been attending public meetings and work group sessions. They have chosen to remain 'out of the loop' and then they make unilateral decisions in a vaccuum that serves their interests or the interests of 'rich' special interest groups. And when they finally discover, late in the day, that they screwed up again (because of their own lack of attention, attendance and good faith in 'our people' and the Board of Supervisors) and made decisions on budgets that cause harm and exponentially increase un-necessary future costs they seem to blame their department heads or staff which just causes even more disconnects inside agencies and makes them all untrustworthy in the eyes of the whole community. It's a viscious cycle that must come to an end. But, even though there are still some public servants that 'have something against' our homeless residents and they 'refuse' to spend money to minimize their suffering and hardship (which will result in people staying longer than necessary in shelters and will result in more failures due to lack of independent access to transportation) we are confident that in time, change for the better will arrive. They will either become enlightened and 'get a heart' and start meeting our people and our Board of Supervisors on a regular basis (in good faith and honesty) or they will be replaced by people that want to invest in humans so they can get out of this 'captive' shelter system that has enslaved too many of our good people. So, we are hopeful that we can build on this movement and we hope that the shelters and homeless & housing service providers will 'step up' and take advantage of the fact that our community will support them. But only ass long as they live up to their agreement and promise to maintain dignity and respect for all San Franciscans regardless of their economic or health status, religion, sexual orientation, gender or the color of their skin or national origin. As long as everyone plays by the rules and take 'good care' of our residents and stop stealing the money and the food, there will be no need for the enforcement provisions of this legislation to kick in. But, let the efforts of the diverse San Franciscans that all came together, as one, on this legislation, serve as a warning to all of the individual thieves, haters, abusers and con artists that are still in our shelters, housing and homeless service provider organizations and on staff in our City Agencies and even our elected public officials, politicians, board & committee members. We will not forget how and who has abused us for the past 15 years. We are going to keep a very close watch over every thing you do; everything you say; and every step you make -- we will be right there to make sure that you either 'do right' by all San Franciscans. Or, if you are unwilling to change your bad ways, we will escort you to the door and you are free to leave or become arrested, because we are no longer going to tolerate any more abuse of our people or the theft and waste of tax payer or donated money and resources. THOSE OLD DAYS ARE GONE NOW WITH THE PASSAGE OF THESE NEW 'MINIMUM STANDARDS OF CARE', AS A MATTER OF LAW. We'd like to again, give a Special Thanks to the Board of Supervisors that sponsored and voted in favor of this legislation and Special Thanks to all of the individuals and groups that worked together, in the San Franciscan way, to make this happen. We hope that in time, all city officials, agencies and service providers will come to our well researched understanding that it's much cheaper and better for us to give our home-less residents all the tools, support and resources they need to 'move on' instead of trying to 'hold them captive' for the sake of power, profit or political gain. We have so many more homeless people coming that we must all work together, as one community, to make sure all San Franciscans are treated with dignity and respect. And with all resources being limited and scarce, we cannot afford to waste or steal or squander any more food, supplies or other resources. We must all open our minds to the fact, that it is true, every time you see a poor, elderly or disabled person walking in the street --- be 'thankful' that you are not in their shoes today. Remember, that due to any sudden, economic or natural disaster, you could be in their shoes tomorrow or next week. You may become a homeless shelter resident, resource center client or have to use other homeless and housing services, just to survive and make it to 'your next step'. Treat others as you would like to be treated because that is what makes us all human. Spending money on all the tools and resources our home-less residents need is money well spent because it is an investment. It's so much cheaper to do exactly what so many other Cities have been doing for many years now. Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Florida and even some parts of Texas. They know it's cheaper, in the first place, to give all people a safe place, a good meal, good role models and positive environments so they can be productive, than it is to not take good care of them and let them loose on the streets to be victimized, beaten down and criminalized which is very, very expensive. Our City Officials keep telling us they 'cannot afford' to spend money on homeless services, mental health services and other proven preventive and cost saving systems, yet they'll submit a budget that includes some $200 Million dollars in 'regular' overtime for police, fire and medical personnel ???!??! It's all backwards and they know it. We're not waiting for them to get the courage to reverse all of these prehistoric, self destructive budget calculation methods and self serving spending habits that are literally 'killing us' and wasting precious tax dollars on a few, while the masses suffer and are placed at great risk. We will move ahead, as a 'united community' and use any legal, political or social tool neccessary to put the horse back in front of these carts. And we are ready and able, by ourselves if need be, to do this. Because as 'an informed and united community' we have all the records, surveys, documents and proof to show what's been wrong with all of these 'systems' for the past 15 years who has lied and been corrupted. Now, we are determined to use that knowledge to 'build anew' the kinds of structures and processes we need to improve the quality of our lives exponentially. But this time, we will do this to benefit and uplift 'the masses' instead of catering to the needs of a few (who are mostly the richest and most uncaring among us). So, let's all stop being ignorant, greedy, insecure about our 'programs' and 'grants' and stupid. It's time for us to stop being selfish, little juvenile delinquents and start acting like humane, caring adults so we can put San Francisco back to its place as a world leader in humanity, justice and 'profitability in business', as it was before, and as it should be, again. To benefit us all, not just a few. Let's stop being greedy, cold, 'controlling' and heartless towards our people. Let's stop putting more importance on our SUV's and 'our clothes' than we have been putting on our fellow human beings... that materialism crap has to go. We must be about substance and honesty or we are really worth nothing at all. Let's all 'get on the same page' and start 'doing right' by each other and by all San Franciscans and live together in peace and prosperity again, as one united community. JOIN US. START BY ATTENDING PUBLIC MEETINGS. JOIN A LOCAL COMMITTEE OR BOARD. DO SOME VOLUNTEERING TO SEE WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON. TO SEE HOW YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND DONATIONS ARE BEING USED OR MISUSED. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. READ ALTERNATIVE MEDIA SOURCES. TALK TO HOMELESS PEOPLE. TALK TO OUR ELDERLY AND OUR POOR. START OPENING YOUR MIND AND GET RID OF YOUR PRECONCEIVED IDEAS AND BIASES AGAINST 'OTHERS' THAT ARE REALLY JUST PEOPLE THAT NEED HELP WITHOUT BEING ABUSED OR RIPPED OFF OR HELD CAPTIVE.