A little over a year ago, voters ousted Chesa Boudin as San Francisco’s District Attorney, ending the 2½-year reign of a prosecutor who had eliminated cash bail and vowed to hold police accountable. 

Boudin—a pioneer of the so-called progressive prosecutor movement—was seen by many as a lightning rod for growing discontent in the city over rising property crime and disorder on the streets. 

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, second from left, discusses prison reform and progressive politics during a post-screening Q&A of “Beyond Bars: It’s a Movement, Not a Moment” at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium on Wednesday. | Source: Christina Campodonico/The Standard

The former DA dipped back into San Francisco politics on Wednesday with the debut of a new documentary about his life. Beyond Bars: It’s Movement, Not a Moment chronicles Boudin’s 2019 campaign for San Francisco DA on a progressive platform, how his life was shaped by the incarceration of his parents—two famed members of the radical militant group the Weather Underground—and how these stories intersect with systemic issues facing families across the criminal justice system.   

The premiere at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium also doubled as a rally of sorts to energize progressive voters for the city’s November 2024 election, and the ousted DA did not mince words on how he sees the current state of city governance, which he called a “dictatorship.” 

“It is horrible to watch what is happening in this city,” Boudin said during a panel discussion following the screening. 

It wasn’t clear whether this barb was directed at District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, the prosecutor who replaced him, or at Mayor London Breed—who’s pushing the city’s recent crackdown on crime as a cornerstone of her reelection bid in 2024. Boudin did not respond to The Standard’s request for clarification of the comment.

READ MORE: The Rise and Fall of Chesa Boudin: Why a Progressive DA Lost in Deep-Blue San Francisco

Whoever was his intended target, Boudin insisted that “this campaign and this movement was never about me or my career.”

He added that he chose not to seek reelection in 2024 to avoid repeating “the same mistakes that my parents made of putting politics before family. 

“I had to think about how could I continue to do work that was so profoundly important to me, to my community, the city that I loved,” Boudin told the audience. 

In interviews for the documentary “Beyond Bars” conducted before her 2022 death, activist, educator and academic Kathy Boudin reflects on raising her son, former District Attorney Chesa Boudin, from behind prison walls. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Since leaving office, Boudin has taken on a new job heading UC Berkeley Law’s new Criminal Law & Justice Center, a research and advocacy hub focusing on criminal justice reform. 

The U.S. criminal justice system has shaped Boudin’s life from the start. As chronicled in the film, Boudin was just 14 months old when his parents—then Weather Underground members—left him with a babysitter to take part in a botched heist of a Brink’s armored truck in 1981 that ultimately left two police officers and a security guard dead. 

A film still from the documentary “Beyond Bars” shows a family photo of a young Chesa Boudin with his father, David Gilbert. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Boudin’s mother, Kathy Boudin, who died last year after a long battle with cancer, was released on parole in 2003 after serving more than 20 years in prison and became an advocate for criminal justice reform, people with HIV/AIDS and children’s literacy. Boudin’s father, David Gilbert, was imprisoned for 40 years before his sentence was commuted by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021. Gilbert was in attendance at Wednesday’s screening. 

READ MORE: Who Is Chesa Boudin? Meet the San Francisco DA at the Center of a Media Storm

The pain of the separation between Boudin and his parents is documented with heartfelt excerpts from letters between Boudin and his imprisoned father, as well as collect calls and candid interviews with Gilbert and Kathy Boudin before her death. Throughout the film, Boudin’s parents express remorse for participating in the Brink’s heist and leaving behind their infant son. 

The documentary also illustrates the emotional toll Boudin experienced as a child moving between the stable Chicago home of his adoptive parents, another Weather Underground couple named Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and visiting his real parents behind bars. Dohrn recounts in the film how Boudin as a toddler would fall into two-day temper tantrums, and Ayers recalls how the clang of prison doors haunted the adolescent Boudin. The film also stresses how even short family visits like the ones Boudin was able to have with his family as a teenager can offer short stints of normalcy for families separated by incarceration. 

Brave New Films’ documentary on the life of Chesa Boudin includes vintage family photos from his childhood. | Source: Courtesy Brave New Films

Social media footage from Boudin’s 2019 campaign for district attorney, as well as policy accomplishments from his tenure, such as abolishing cash bail and filing unprecedented homicide charges against a former SFPD officer, also illustrate the optimism and momentum of the progressive prosecutor movement at the time.      

READ MORE: The Recall of Chesa Boudin: How the Pandemic Fed a National Attack on Progressive Prosectors

Director Robert Greenwald, who is also the president of Brave New Films, the social justice-oriented not-for-profit film company that produced the documentary, said he was drawn to Boudin’s story because it illustrates the universal pain of family separation.  

“The idea of four parents—two locked up, two not—it’s extraordinary,” Greenwald said. 

The filmmakers hope that Boudin’s story—intertwined with those of formerly incarcerated people, prison reform activists and children with parents in prison—will mobilize reforms. The documentary will be screened in several U.S. cities this winter before being released on the Brave New Films website in mid-January. 

A film still from the new documentary about Chesa Boudin’s life, “Beyond Bars,” captures a moment from the former DA’s 2019 campaign victory night. | Source: Eddy Hernandez/Courtesy Brave New Films

Boudin told the Standard the film was “a story about mass incarceration and racial injustice in this country, and one person’s struggle to fight for a better, safer world.” 

Despite the recall that forced him from office prematurely, Boudin believes that “the movement of progressive prosecution and criminal justice reform is growing. It has momentum. And I have tremendous confidence that the policies and practices championed by this movement will continue to advance safety and be popular amongst voters.”

Boudin told Wednesday’s audience that he was excited to see who would step up to run against Jenkins to become the city’s next DA. He added, “I’m so excited to see who’s going to step up and beat London Breed.”

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A construction worker walks on what will be the top of a new home being built in Brick, N.J. on July 10, 2023. Government pushes to move buildings and vehicles away from burning fossil fuels to help address climate change are generating pushback in New Jersey and around the nation, with opponents worried about the cost of switching. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

BRICK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is pushing an ambitious agenda to move its more than 9 million residents away from natural gas and gasoline to heat their homes and power their cars, in favor of electricity to do the job of both.

But like many other places in the country, the moves, designed to lessen the harmful impact of burning fossil fuels on the planet’s climate, are garnering significant opposition from foes who warn that the government is coming to take away your stove and your car.

New Jersey utility regulators on Wednesday approved a series of “decarbonization” measures designed to incentivize buildings to switch from natural gas heat to electric. Participation in the programs is strictly voluntary, according to the chairman of the state Board of Public Utilities, who lashed out against “misinformation and lies” being circulated by opponents.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has said he wants only “zero-emissions” vehicles to be available in the state by 2035.

Taken together, they represent aggressive steps to move away from fossil fuel use.

“We build upon our nation-leading record of bold climate action while delivering on our promise to utilize every tool at our disposal to combat the intensifying climate crisis,” Murphy said earlier this month in announcing the requirement that manufacturers ramp up their production of electric vehicles, reaching 100% by 2035.

“No one is coming for anyone’s gas stove,” the governor said. “No one is walking into anyone’s kitchen. No one is going to be forced to do anything, in any way.”

But to opponents, the moves represent serious and costly government overreach, which will inevitably need to be enforced by bans.

“New Jerseyans are learning that the ultimate goal of ‘building decarbonization’ and Gov. Murphy’s extreme green energy plan is the elimination of affordable natural gas and the extremely costly replacement of gas stoves, furnaces, and hot water heaters,” said Republican state Sen. Anthony Bucco. “They’re realizing there’s no way to fully electrify the entire state without bans, mandates, expensive conversions, and higher energy bills.”

The programs approved Wednesday by the Board of Public Utilities include goals and targets for buildings to install heat pumps instead of natural gas cooling and heating equipment.

These devices move heat between the air inside a home and the air outside a home, while ground source heat pumps transfer heat between the air inside a home and the ground outside a home. Low-income households would qualify for financial assistance to purchase and install them.

“Without a doubt, this will kick-start to the next generation of energy efficiency in New Jersey,” said the board’s chairman, Joseph Fiordaliso. “We are encouraging folks to move to energy efficiency. Notice I said ‘encouraging.’ We are not requiring. We are not mandating anyone to give up their gas stove. I cannot emphasize more that we are not mandating anything. So, enough of the misinformation out there.”

Decarbonization of buildings is a critical component in New Jersey’s energy master plan and is the focus of an executive order by the governor to install zero-carbon-emission space heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties, and make 10% of all low-to-moderate income properties electrification-ready by 2030.

It’s already happening in places like Berkeley, California, which in 2019 voted to ban natural gas connections in all new construction. San Francisco and New York City soon followed.

But other places, particularly those with Republican-led governments, are resisting. As of June, 24 states have adopted laws prohibiting natural gas bans. They call the laws “pre-emption” measures.

New Jersey’s business community is concerned with the cost of Murphy’s proposals, which some opponents have put at more than $1 trillion.

“While we should all work to reduce carbon emissions, the ban of gas-powered cars in such an expedited time frame does not take costs or feasibility into account, and it is likely to result in a major increase in New Jersey residents who actually won’t be able to afford to drive,” said Ray Cantor, an official with the New Jersey Business And Industry Association.

“The governor’s plan will make new cars virtually unaffordable for working and middle-class consumers and will severely limit vehicle consumer choice,” added Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers.

But the state’s environmental community strongly supports the switches.

“Building electrification is environmental protection from the inside out,” said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, state director of the Sierra Club. “Modern electric technologies are crucial to making our communities more resilient to extreme weather and are far more efficient than fossil-fuel alternatives. Our clean energy transition not only happens out there on our grids, but also right here in our homes and shared spaces so that we can all breathe easier while taking action to reduce harmful climate pollutants.”

___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

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BRICK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is pushing an ambitious agenda to move its more than 9 million residents away from natural gas and gasoline to heat their homes and power their cars, in favor of electricity to do the job of both.

But like many other places in the country, the moves, designed to lessen the harmful impact of burning fossil fuels on the planet’s climate, are garnering significant opposition from foes who warn that the government is coming to take away your stove and your car.

New Jersey utility regulators are to vote Wednesday on a series of “decarbonization” measures designed to incentivize buildings to switch from natural gas heat to electric.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has said he wants only “zero-emissions” vehicles to be available in the state by 2035.

Taken together, they represent aggressive steps to move away from fossil fuel use.

“We build upon our nation-leading record of bold climate action while delivering on our promise to utilize every tool at our disposal to combat the intensifying climate crisis,” Murphy said earlier this month in announcing the requirement that manufacturers ramp up their production of electric vehicles, reaching 100% by 2035.

“No one is coming for anyone’s gas stove,” the governor said. “No one is walking into anyone’s kitchen. No one is going to be forced to do anything, in any way.”

But to opponents, the moves represent serious and costly government overreach, which will inevitably need to be enforced by bans.

“New Jerseyans are learning that the ultimate goal of ‘building decarbonization’ and Gov. Murphy’s extreme green energy plan is the elimination of affordable natural gas and the extremely costly replacement of gas stoves, furnaces, and hot water heaters,” said Republican state Sen. Anthony Bucco. “They’re realizing there’s no way to fully electrify the entire state without bans, mandates, expensive conversions, and higher energy bills.”

While Murphy said the electric vehicle rules do not impose any obligations onto consumers or car dealerships, Brad Schnure, a spokesman for Senate Republicans, said there is no way New Jersey can reach the governor’s stated climate goals without mandates.

A spokesman for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said the agency will not comment until after it votes on proposed decarbonization measures on Wednesday. Those steps include goals and targets for buildings to install heat pumps instead of natural gas cooling and heating equipment.

These devices move heat between the air inside a home and the air outside a home, while ground source heat pumps transfer heat between the air inside a home and the ground outside a home. Low-income households would qualify for financial assistance to purchase and install them.

Decarbonization of buildings is a critical component in New Jersey’s energy master plan and is the focus of an executive order by the governor to install zero-carbon-emission space heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties, and make 10% of all low-to-moderate income properties electrification-ready by 2030.

It’s already happening in places like Berkeley, California, which in 2019 voted to ban natural gas connections in all new construction. San Francisco and New York City soon followed.

But other places, particularly those with Republican-led governments, are resisting. As of June, 24 states have adopted laws prohibiting natural gas bans. They call the laws “pre-emption” measures.

New Jersey’s business community is concerned with the cost of Murphy’s proposals, which some opponents have put at more than $1 trillion.

“While we should all work to reduce carbon emissions, the ban of gas-powered cars in such an expedited time frame does not take costs or feasibility into account, and it is likely to result in a major increase in New Jersey residents who actually won’t be able to afford to drive,” said Ray Cantor, an official with the New Jersey Business And Industry Association.

“The governor’s plan will make new cars virtually unaffordable for working and middle-class consumers and will severely limit vehicle consumer choice,” added Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers.

But the state’s environmental community strongly supports the switches.

“Building electrification is environmental protection from the inside out,” said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, state director of the Sierra Club. “Modern electric technologies are crucial to making our communities more resilient to extreme weather and are far more efficient than fossil-fuel alternatives. Our clean energy transition not only happens out there on our grids, but also right here in our homes and shared spaces so that we can all breathe easier while taking action to reduce harmful climate pollutants.”

Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, called the BPU proposals “a necessary step toward reducing emissions from our buildings, the second-highest polluting sector in the state, while delivering clean air and healthier homes.”

___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Follow @ktar923

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The city of San Francisco announced Thursday that it is suing the federal government over its decision to stop funding Laguna Honda Hospital and force the nursing home to move all patients out of the facility by September. 13.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Minister Xavier Becerra. It is alleged that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), operating under HHS, have forced the city to implement an unworkable closure and patient transfer plan that is putting them at risk and denying the city’s due process.

In April, CMS terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in its Medicare/Medicaid programs after the hospital was found to be non-compliant with multiple safety inspections, including finding contraband items such as drug paraphernalia on site and failing to comply with hand hygiene, documentation, and infection prevention protocols.

Laguna Honda Hospital

CBS

As a result of the decertification, the hospital lost federal funds that funded more than two-thirds of its services to nearly 700 patients with complex medical needs and low incomes.

The federal government also ordered the facility to reduce its patient population, and the hospital transferred several dozen patients over 10 weeks. At least four patients reportedly died within days of being relocated, including three who were taken to homeless shelters. A total of nine patients died within days or weeks of being transferred or discharged, according to prosecutor David Chiu.

Laguna Honda last week halted referrals for the remaining 600 patients following the deaths.

The complaint alleges that CMS set an arbitrary deadline for patient transfers to September 13 and is asking that it be closed before the city’s appeals can be decided, which could render the transfers unnecessary.

In a press release, Chiu said a second class action lawsuit against the state of California and the federal government, filed by former prosecutor Louise Renne, alleges the closure and transfer process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and denies patients and their families a proper due Procedure .

“The federal government has placed Laguna Honda and our city in an impossible situation,” Chiu said in a prepared statement. “As the last safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves a need too critical to be shut down by an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision. The city has been forced into an unworkable plan of closure and relocation that has done far more harm than good.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to overturn the September 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

“We are working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda and this important work continues,” Mayor London Breed said in a prepared statement. “But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to endure the trauma of transfers should not be part of this process. This facility provides care and support to some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe.”

“For over 150 years, the San Franciscos have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable,” Renne said in a prepared statement. “We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health and Human Services are illegal, unnecessary and cruel.

Theresa Rutherford, the President-elect of SEIU 1021 and longtime Board Certified Nursing Assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, released the following statement in response to the lawsuits announcement:

“Laguna Honda Hospital is more than just a hospital, it is a long-term home for many. Keeping patients at Laguna Honda, where they will have one of the most unique and comprehensive care services in this country, must be a priority for us as a community and for elected officials at all levels. We support patients and families campaigning to stop the closure because we know it will save lives.

We understand how stressful and scary the past few months have been for staff and patients alike. Transfer trauma is a real danger to the people we serve, which is why our union is doing everything it can to get Laguna Honda Hospital recertified. We encourage community members to join us by contacting their elected leaders at all levels and asking them to join us.”

In May, Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Becerra asking that CMS’s decision to end Laguna Honda’s participation in its programs and force the relocation of its vulnerable patients be reversed.

“Unless CMS reverses its decision, these patients would be put at risk again if they were transferred to other facilities,” Feinstein said in a statement last month. “This is of particular concern after reports of some patients being sent to homeless shelters that were ill-equipped to provide the necessary medical services.”

The hospital remains open and licensed as it continues to work to rejoin federal programs.

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San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that nearly $30 million in new federal funding is headed to San Francisco to support vital community projects. These investments – which will support neighborhood-serving organizations that are helping meet the needs of Bay Area families – were included in the government funding package signed into law today by President Biden.

“The new federal funding headed to our City for critical community projects is a major victory for San Francisco families,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “Thanks to Democrats’ tenacious negotiating, this year’s government funding package delivers deeply needed federal funds for projects across the country that help meet specific needs of our communities. From easing food insecurity and homelessness to expanding vital health services to caring for local veterans, these investments will help us seize the biggest opportunities and tackle the biggest challenges that San Franciscans face.”

A full list of San Francisco community projects receiving funding for Fiscal Year 2023 include:

• San Francisco General Hospital Foundation on behalf of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center – $1,000,000 for the Transform Mental and Behavioral Health Fund
• San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium – $2,200,000 for Community Health Center Improvements
• Larkin Street Youth Services – $1,550,000 for Services for Youth Experiencing Homelessness
• HealthRIGHT 360 – $2,500,000 for the Integrated Care Center
• Mission Neighborhood Centers, Inc. – $2,000,000 for Child Care Facilities Expansions
• The National AIDS Memorial – $750,000 for the Center for Health and Social Justice
• Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative – $2,500,000 for Edge on the Square Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative Building Renovation
• Friends of the Children – SF Bay Area – $750,000 for Friends of the Children Bayview Youth Center
• Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, Inc. (LYRIC) – $2,000,000 for Youth Center Renovation
• United Playaz, Inc. – $4,000,000 for 1044 Howard Building Purchase and Improvements
• Project OpenHand – $1,451,000 for Community Nutrition and Wellness Expansion
• San Francisco Recreation and Park Department – $3,000,000 for Japantown Peace Plaza Renovation
• The Friendship House Association of American Indians – $750,000 for the Village SF Urban Indian Project
• Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy – $3,000,000 for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Energy Production and Storage Project
• San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency – $2,500,000 for Bayview Community-Based Transportation Implementation

“We are deeply appreciative of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership to secure funding to provide timely and comprehensive mental health services for San Francisco,” said Kim Meredith, CEO of San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. “Not only will our Transforming Mental and Behavioral Health program draw together experts to develop innovative models for treating the mental health needs of the predominately underserved and underinsured population that Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital serves, but it will also help find solutions to the national effort , including the systemic causes of homelessness not just in this District, but nationwide.”

“The San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium and its member clinics serve over 100,000 low income vulnerable San Franciscans,” said Deena Lahn, Vice President, Policy and External Affairs of San Francisco Community Clinics Consortium. “During the worst parts of the Covid pandemic and continuing today, our community clinics remained open to provide information, vaccinations and treatment to communities who would otherwise be ignored. The funds provided through the Community Project Funding will fund critical equipment and renovation to help meet the needs of our patients and ensure that we can continue to provide high quality, up to date medical care for our hard working patients, regardless of their ability to pay .”

“We are incredibly grateful to Speaker Pelosi’s leadership for supporting our FY23 Community Project proposal,” said Sherilyn Adams, Executive Director of Larkin Street Youth Services. “With these critical resources Larkin Street will be able to amplify our efforts to stably house and improve economic Outcomes for youth experiencing homelessness in San Francisco by providing immediate access to shelter, transitional housing with intensive case management, and educational programming to help close the post-pandemic learning gap.This funding will also support progress towards our collective long-term goal of ending youth homelessness in San Francisco.”

“Congresswoman Pelosi’s community project funding to fully renovate the current administrative floor of HealthRIGHT 360’s Integrated Care Clinic in San Francisco will exponentially expand capacity of client assessments for substance use disorder treatment intakes, and will allow us to continue our focus of treatment on demand for those that need the most help by providing better access to treatment,” said Vitka Eisen, Chief Executive Officer of HealthRIGHT 360. “Thank you, Congresswoman Pelosi, for continuing to bring important federal funding home to San Francisco to address our underserved and often marginalized communities that need the most help, and for living our mantra that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.”

“The MNC Family is more than grateful and appreciative to Speaker Pelosi for her continued support and generosity, that will impact and improve young lives for generations ahead,” said Richard Ybarra, Chief Executive Officer of Mission Neighborhood Centers. “These funds will advance the completion of our new Inspiring Children early care campus at 1240 Valencia (former police station).”

“The National AIDS Memorial is deeply appreciative of Speaker Pelosi’s support of funding our work toward building a National Center for Health & Social Justice in San Francisco,” said John Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer of the National AIDS Memorial. “Still relevant today, the Center will transform the enormous human tragedy exacerbated by societal indifference and the triumphs and lessons of the AIDS crisis into an enduring movement so that never again will a community be harmed due to stigma, prejudice, discrimination, or hate. San Francisco has long stood at the forefront of our nation’s fight for social justice and the Center will educate and inspire compassion and action in its citizens, the nation, and the global community.”

“Speaker Pelosi’s ultimate legacy is that of a tireless and fearless public servant,” said Malcolm Yeung, Founding Board Member of the Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative. “No issue is too big and, equally important, no issue is too small. The Speaker’s leadership means everything to our Chinatown community.”

“This appropriation is a significant contribution to Edge On The Square, anticipated to be the soul and new icon of Chinatown,” said Mabel Teng, Executive Director and Founding Board Member of the Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative. “We are rolling up our sleeves to build the unprecedented Asian American storytelling platform with a just vision of America through the lens of immigrants.”

“Friends of the Children extends our sincere gratitude and thanks to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi for her unwavering commitment to supporting children in Bayview Hunters Point,” said Timothy Waters, Executive Director of Friends of the Children – SF Bay Area. “This funding to secure the acquisition of the Bayview Youth Center will enable Friends of the Children – SF Bay Area to continue on our path to mentor and serve 400 children. By creating an incredible space for our program, this support will positively impact generational change as our paid, professional mentors further the hopes and dreams of the youth and families we serve.”

“These federal funds will increase the current LYRIC space by 40% which will allow us to serve more LGBTQQ+ youth, especially trans and non-binary youth, here in San Francisco,” said Adam-Michael Royston, Vice President of LYRIC. “The LYRIC center is the second oldest LGBTQQ+ youth center in the country and with trans youth under attack across the country we have seen a tremendous increase in our services – specifically mental health and gender affirming care and these funds will allow us to serve more than 3,000 youth in San Francisco a year.”

“We are so appreciative to be included in the Community Project Funding!” said Rudy Corpuz, Executive Director of United Playaz. “Our project to purchase and rebuild 1044 Howard Street/United Playaz Way would not have happened without these important funds! This new building will become home to our literacy program Real Playaz Read and our growing ReEntry program serving individuals coming home from incarceration. It Takes The Hood To Save The Hood!”

“For 37 years, Project Open Hand’s mission has been to serve meals with love to the Bay Area, providing life-saving nutrition for residents who need it most,” said Paul Hepfer, Chief Executive Officer of Project Open Hand. “The funds allocated to our organization by Congresswoman Pelosi will ensure that our programs and capacity continue to reach those in critical need of the medically tailored meals that we provide. On behalf of our clients and our staff, Project Open Hand would like to convey our sincerest appreciation for this funding and recognition of the important work that our founder, Ruth Brinker, began back in 1985, and that we continue to this day.”

“We are so grateful to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her steadfast support of the Japantown Peace Plaza renovation,” Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. “For 110 years, this space has been vital to generations of Japanese American, Asian American and Pacific Islander families and is one of only three Japantowns left in the US With $3 million in federal funding, the Peace Plaza will continue to flourish as an essential open space that is home to so many community organizations, small business, and artists.”

“This investment contributes to the development of the Village SF, a six-story building in the heart of the city that provides cultural programs, social services, housing, and medical and dental care, for the 9,000 Native Americans and Alaska Natives who live in San Francisco,” said Gabriel Pimentel (Apache), Executive Director of Friendship House Association of American Indians. “The Village SF is just the beginning of Friendship House’s vision for a thriving and healthy Native community in the heart of every city in America.”

“The park partners of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area are grateful to Speaker Pelosi and for this federal community project funding that will bring to life the dream of a solar project within the Presidio. Addressing climate resilience in Bay Area national parks is a priority, as we continue to ensure these park lands serve as places of welcome and belonging for people from San Francisco and across the world for decades to come,” said Christine Lehnertz, President & CEO, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

“Installing solar panels in the Presidio will save energy costs and further our goal of being a carbon-neutral park,” said Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust. “This project will educate the Presidio’s millions of visitors about the power Americans have to reduce climate change by using alternative energy sources.”

“This award will generate broad and important safety benefits that are directly aligned with community needs and values ​​in Bayview-Hunters Point,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, Director of Transportation at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “It will have a direct impact by improving pedestrian and bicycle safety in the Bayview Neighborhood, one of San Francisco’s most disadvantaged communities. Specifically, this project will improve pedestrian safety along the 3rd St. corridor, improving resident access to transit, local businesses, parks, and community centers.”

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This November, Proposition C will give San Francisco voters the opportunity to approve the creation of a new oversight commission for the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. This body would join the more than 100 commissions, committees, councils and working groups — supplemented by a city services auditor, a budget and legislative analyst, a city attorney, a district attorney, an ethics commission and a civil grand jury — already tasked with overseeing the delivery of municipal services.

Under the watchful eye of this impressive edifice, San Francisco ought to have the cleanest, most efficient government in the world. Instead, over the last 20 years, multiple city officials have been indicted on federal corruption charges, the mayor’s annual budget has ballooned from $5 billion to $14 billion, and the government’s performance on several key metrics has only gotten worse or remained stagnant. According to one ranking, San Francisco is the second worst-run city in America.

We think there’s a better way: municipal services oversight should be centralized in a unified agency that reports to a board of auditors, which would be elected every four years and empowered to summon witnesses, subpoena documents, impound wasteful spending and levy civil penalties.

Leading audit standards bodies, whether in the public or the private sector, agree that auditor independence is the sine qua non of effective oversight. But, in San Francisco, the entities charged with ensuring that taxpayers get what they pay for are instead kept to the very departments and agencies they’re supposed to oversee. For example, the city services auditor is hired by the city controller, who is appointed by the mayor, while commissioners are appointed by varying combinations of the mayor, the supervisors and other interested parties. The city attorney and district attorney are elected by the voters, but, as political offices, they have other priorities beyond investigating corruption and waste.

San Franciscans deserve the option to vote for oversight officials who answer directly to them, and who are politically incentivized to focus exclusively on cleaning up city hall. Creating the agency we propose would align San Francisco with other California counties and US states whose auditors (or controllers with audit powers) are elected, rather than appointed. It would also professionalize the city’s audit function by entrusting it to full-time, qualified civil servants, rather than a patronage network of politically connected activists moonlighting as commissioners. Our current system is the one that put Jon Jacobo, a legislative aide, on the Building Inspection Commission, and Victor Makras, a real estate developer, on the Police Commission. Jacobo resigned last year after being accused of sexual assault; Makras was found guilty last month of bank fraud.

Variations of this proposal have been put before the voters and the Board of Supervisors before, in 2016 and 2020, but were rejected due to cost, politicization and implementation concerns. Our proposal is responsive to those concerns. First, this new agency would supplant, not supplement, the existing oversight commissions in the city, and would be funded by the resultant savings. Is this feasible? Certainly. The budgets of San Francisco’s city services auditor, Ethics Commission and Department of Police Accountability alone combine to equal the entire budget of the California state auditor, or the audits division of the state controller. To be clear, this isn’t about eliminating funds for oversight programs; it’s about entrusting them to a body that has the proper expertise and incentives to conduct them effectively. Second, electing a board, each member of which is equally authorized to deploy resources, rather than a single official to lead this agency, alleviates concerns that it would spend four years investigating that one official’s political enemies and no one else. Finally, to ensure continuity of oversight, existing commissions could temporarily operate under the authority of the board of auditors during a phase-in period until the new agency is fully provisioned.

Many government employees are competent, conscious and committed. But, over time, even the most well-meaning public servant can’t fight waste and corruption in a system that holds no one accountable. The result is a city that spends $60,000 on a tent and $20,000 on a trash can. The Board of Supervisors is empowered to put a charter amendment on the ballot to create the agency we propose and put an end to this kind of irresponsible spending. Our system is broken — let’s live up to our reputation as the City That Knows How and fix it.

Jay Donde and Bill Jackson are co-founders of the San Francisco Briones Society, a center-right club that develops and advocates for consensus solutions to urgent local issues.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The city of San Francisco announced Thursday that it’s suing the federal government over its decision to cut off funding to Laguna Honda Hospital and the order forcing the nursing home to transfer all patients out of the facility by Sept. 13.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Xavier Becerra. It alleges that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which operates under HHS, forced the City to implement an unworkable closure and patient transfer plan that put them at risk and denies the City due process.

In April, CMS terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in its Medicare/Medicaid programs after the hospital was found out of compliance on multiple safety inspections, including finding contraband like drug paraphernalia on site, and failure to adhere to hand hygiene, documentation and infection prevention protocols.

Laguna Honda Hospital

CBS

As a result of being decertified, the hospital lost federal funding that financed more than two-thirds of its services for nearly 700 patients with complex medical needs and low incomes.

The federal government also directed the facility to wind down its patient population, and the hospital transferred several dozen patients over 10 weeks. At least four patients were reportedly dead within a few days after their relocation, including three that were sent to homeless shelters. A total of nine patients died within days or weeks after transfer or discharge, according to City Attorney David Chiu.

Last week, Laguna Honda maintained transfers for its remaining 600 patients following the deaths.

The complaint alleges the CMS imposed an arbitrary Sept. 13 deadline for patient transfers and required it to close before the city’s appeals could be decided, which might make the transfers unnecessary.

In a press release, Chiu said a second-class-action lawsuit against both the State of California and the federal government filed by former City Attorney Louise Renne alleges the closure and transfer process violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and denies patients and their families due process .

“The federal government has put Laguna Honda and our City in an impossible situation,” said Chiu in a prepared statement. “As the final safety net for many of our most vulnerable San Franciscans, Laguna Honda serves too critical a need to be closed due to an arbitrary, bureaucratic decision. The City has been forced into an unworkable closure and transfer plan that has done far more harm than good.”

The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to eliminate the Sept. 13 deadline and extend federal funding to Laguna Honda at least until the appeals can be decided and all patients can be safely transferred or discharged.

“We are working hard to address issues that have been raised at Laguna Honda, and that important work will continue,” said Mayor London Breed in a prepared statement. “But closing this facility and forcing residents and families to go through the trauma of transfers should not be part of that process. This facility provides care and support for some of the most vulnerable people in our city, and that support must continue to keep them healthy and safe.”

“For over 150 years, San Franciscans have relied on Laguna Honda to provide critical care to our most vulnerable,” Renne said in a prepared statement. “We simply cannot allow Laguna Honda to close. The actions of CMS and the California Department of Health are illegal, unnecessary, and cruel.

Theresa Rutherford, the President-Elect of the SEIU 1021 and a longtime certified nursing assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, released the following statement in response to the announcement of the lawsuits:

“Laguna Honda Hospital is more than just a hospital, it is a long-term home for many. Keeping patients at Laguna Honda, where they are provided some of the most unique and comprehensive care available in this country, must be a priority for our community and for elected officials at all levels.We support patients and families who are advocating to help stop the closure because we know it will save lives.

We understand how stressful and scary the last few months have been for workers and patients alike. Transfer trauma is a real danger for the people we care for, which is why our union is doing everything we can to get Laguna Honda Hospital recertified. We encourage community members to join us by contacting their elected leaders at all levels and asking them to stand with us.”

In May, Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote a letter to Becerra asking to reverse the CMS decision to terminate Laguna Honda’s participation in its programs and force the relocation of its vulnerable patients.

“If CMS does not reverse its decision, these patients would again be put at risk as they’re transferred to other facilities,” Feinstein said in a statement last month. “This is particularly concerning after some patients were reportedly sent to homeless shelters ill-equipped to provide the necessary medical services.”

The hospital remains open and licensed as it continues to work on rejoining the federal programs.

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San Francisco’s current and former city attorneys filed a pair of lawsuits late Wednesday that they hope will bring a screeching halt to the federal government’s effort to shutter Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center next month.

City Attorney David Chiu is asking a US District Court judge to stop the federal government from cutting off funds to Laguna Honda as of Sept. 13, a deadline the city calls arbitrary and which would force the nursing home to shut down and displace 600 vulnerable residents .

Former City Attorney Louise Renne filed a separate, class-action lawsuit against state and federal officials on behalf of those residents. Most patients at the skilled nursing facility—one of the largest in the US—are medically fragile and often very poor. Some have lived there for decades.

The pending closure has caused an uproar among supporters of the city-run nursing home, especially after the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid forced Laguna Honda to begin transferring its frail patients in May in preparation for the closure. Of the 57 patients transferred or discharged, eight died within days or weeks of their moves.

An empty hallway at Laguna Honda hospital in San Francisco on July 20, 2022. The facility is required by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to transfer or discharge all patients by mid-September after the federal agency decertified it in April.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

Because 14% of the relocated people have died, possibly as a result of the phenomenon known as “transfer trauma,” federal officials agreed last month to pause the transfers.

“Pausing is not enough,” Renne told The Chronicle. “We’re asking them to end the discharge. Period. Families are worried sick. The mere threat of a discharge is wrong.”

In the city’s lawsuit, Chiu argues that the federal agency known as CMS chose a random date — Sept. 13 — to halt funding of more than $200 million a year in the form of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. The suit says shutting down the nursing home so quickly is illegal because San Francisco is appealing the agency’s decision to decertify Laguna Honda in the first place — and that appeal won’t be heard until at least October.

“We’re asking the federal government to exert compassion and common sense,” Chiu said. “Between the huge shortage of skilled nursing facility beds, we see potentially very negative consequences” if the facility is forced to shut down next month. “Individuals will become homeless. These people have nowhere to go.”

Renne put it more bluntly: “We’ve had eight deaths. Who knows if there would be more? (CMS) knows that as well as we do. How do they live with themselves?”

Chiu’s lawsuit notes that three patients discharged from Laguna Honda wound up in homeless shelters. And last month, when Laguna Honda officials called 1,400 nursing homes in a single week to try to comply with the transfer order, not one of them had a vacant bed eligible for Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement and with appropriate services for Laguna Honda’s patients, according to the suit.

“CMS’s unreasonable requirements are not only harmful to patients and impossible to achieve, they are also unlawful,” says the city’s lawsuit. Chiu argues that the agency shouldn’t be allowed to shut down Laguna Honda before the city can make its case that CMS was wrong to crack down so hard on the facility, and that closing it before the appeal is heard denies San Francisco due process.

CMS officials could not immediately be reached for comment after the suits were filed. In an interview on July 26, however, a CMS official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Chronicle that the agency could extend its deadline.

“The timing is something we can revisit,” the official said.

CMS decertified Laguna Honda in April, six months after state inspectors declared it to be “in a state of substandard care.” CMS set Sept. 13 as the date it would stop paying to care for the facility’s hundreds of residents. Laguna Honda depends on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements of nearly $18 million a month, or more than two-thirds of its $26 million monthly budget.

The city’s lawsuit acknowledges that Laguna Honda must fix deficiencies and prevent them from recurring. But it also says the California Public Health Department — which recommended that CMS withdraw the Medicare and Medicaid funding — overstated the severity of the deficiences its inspectors found at Laguna Honda between October and March, and that it never should have made that recommendation.

Renne’s class-action suit, which seeks a trial by jury, makes the same argument. It’s also the basis of Chiu’s appeal.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu speaks at a press conference about abortion rights at City Hall on June 1, 2022.

Constanza Hevia H./Special to The Chronicle

Laguna Honda’s current troubles began in July 2021, after the facility reported that two patients had overdosed on illegal drugs and recovered. That report triggered the state visit in October, after which inspectors found the facility out of compliance.

The city’s lawsuit says the state’s finding was based on a “failure to eliminate all illicit drugs and contraband (such as cigarette lighters),” which in turn led to the recommendation that CMS terminate its contract with Laguna Honda on April 14 if the nursing home was still out of compliance.

Chiu argues that instead of allowing CMS to hastily shut down a vital institution, especially when there are virtually no adequate alternatives for most residents, the courts should give San Francisco time to make its case that decertifying Laguna Honda was done in error.

Laguna Honda is also correcting its deficiencies and should be allowed to complete that process, the lawsuit says. The nursing home “is confident that it will submit an application allowing it to be recertified as a Medicare and Medicaid provider by the end of the year.”

But if it has to shut down, Laguna Honda will need until Nov. 2023 to do so safely, the suit says.

In all, Chiu’s lawsuit paints a picture of a Catch-22 — an “impossible situation” — that CMS has forced on Laguna Honda, the city and the patients who depend on it. “Laguna Honda cannot stay open and it cannot close,” the suit says.

The city attorney said that “the federal government has left us with no choice” but to sue. “We’re hoping that CMS will come to the table and work with us to preserve this critical safety net.”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov

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Here are your FOX Business Flash top headlines for March 25.

One expert is claiming that Facebook and Twitter are moving at a “slow speed” in their enforcement of Russian government propaganda and disinformation on social media.

After Russian forces bombed a maternity hospital on March 9 in Mariupol, the Russian embassy in the United Kingdom tweeted pictures from the blast captioned with the word “FAKE” over them, implying that the hospital only had military troops inside.

The embassy also targeted Ukrainian blogger Marianna Podgurskaya, stating that she “played” the role of a pregnant woman with “very realistic make-up,” that looked like blood.

“It’s the indeed pregnant [Ukraine] beauty blogger Marianna Podgurskaya,” the embassy tweeted, according to the New York Post. “She actually played roles of both pregnant women in the photos.”

UKRAINE CRISIS: KREMLIN BLOCKING RUSSIANS’ ACCESS TO TWITTER AMID PROTESTS, CRITICISM: RESEARCHER

IRPIN, UKRAINE – MARCH 07: Residents of Irpin flee heavy fighting via a destroyed bridge as Russian forces entered the city on March 07, 2022 in Irpin, Ukraine. Russia continues its assault on Ukraine’s major cities, including the capital Kyiv, more (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The posts were removed from Twitter, but only after government officials in the United Kingdom expressed outrage, according to the report.

Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, told FOX Business that this is a prime example of social media companies moving at a “slow speed” to combat propaganda coming from Russian government accounts.

“What has troubled me most is the slow speed of enforcement in cases where Russia is using its government presence or it’s continuing the existence of government accounts clearly to spread disinformation,” Brooking said. “In the case of the Russian embassy that was personally maligning a bomb victim in Mariupol, claiming that this woman was a crisis actor and was an outrageous, personally directed attack and the attack lasted for several hours on Twitter before it was removed and got significant shares.”

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Facebook and Twitter have taken actions targeting the Russian government as well as some aimed at helping keep individuals informed.

UKRAINE WAR: META SAYS IT WILL RESTRICT RUSSIAN STATE-OWNED MEDIA RT AND SPUTNIK IN EUROPE AMID INVASION

In this photo illustration the Facebook logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Twitter suspended advertisements in Russia and Ukraine on Feb. 25 in an effort to ensure “critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” according to the company.

A Twitter spokesperson pointed to FOX Business to a blog post explaining their approach to the war in Ukraine, which includes de-amplifying content that isn’t associated with a risk for immediate harm but may be out of context and mislead people. If a tweet is in violation of the Twitter rules, action will be taken against it, the blog post states.

One day after Twitter made the announcement, Meta announced that it is banning Russian state media from “running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world.” Meta also announced the establishment of a “Special Operations Center to respond in real time.”

Meta also announced on Feb. 28 that it is restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the European Union.

TWITTER SUSPENDS ADVERTISEMENTS IN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AMID WAR

Brooking, however, says that there is a difference between that type of content and press releases or government statements that are shared on Russian government accounts.

“I want to distinguish that kind of content from press releases or government statements, or the things that are typically released via these channels,” Brooking said. “That’s the sort of content, even if we find it despicable, that I think should continue to circulate in the digital space.”

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FILE – This July 9, 2019, file photo shows a sign outside of the Twitter office building in San Francisco. Twitter posted solid results for the last three months of 2020, capping what CEO Jack Dorsey called “an extraordinary year” for the platform. ( (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu / AP Images)

Brooking says that social media companies face a constant battle to maintain balance.

“For these companies, it is always a balancing act. And if Russia continues to use its official voices to engage in such personal and repugnant attacks, then I think their access to these platforms should be totally removed,” Brooking said.

FOX Business’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report

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Denver City Council will be considering two proposals from Clerk and Recorder Paul López in the coming weeks that would change the way the city holds local elections.

The first proposal would postpone the Denver local elections in May to April and keep the runoff election in June. The second proposal would implement a ranked voting model that would remove the city’s current runoff structure.

“The Denver Charter is out of date with the way modern elections are to be conducted,” said López, Denver’s chief electoral commissioner. “Both models are viable options and we are ready to manage each option with the standard of excellence our office is known for.”

López proposed the changes to bring the Denver local elections into line with a federal regulation recently adopted by Colorado. Under the new requirement, cities will have to cast ballot papers to foreign and military voters 45 days before the elections. The requirement became an issue as the Denver local elections were followed by runoff elections 30 days later, with only the top two candidates appearing on the runoff.

In the ranked election, known as RCV, voters rank candidates according to their preference on their ballot papers. If no candidate receives a majority of the first-vote votes, the candidate with the fewest first-vote votes is eliminated and any ballot papers that selected that candidate first go to their second preference. This is repeated until one candidate has a majority.

Denver used the RCV model in its local elections in 1916 until voters repealed it in 1935 and replaced it with the current runoff system.

Leader board voting advocates argue that this ensures that most voters are not against the victorious candidates, even if the winner is not their first choice, and allows voters to make their true choices rather than having to choose between the two best candidate to feel limited. RCV also avoids voter fatigue and saves time and money by requiring only one election, a benefit López recognizes in his proposal.

“We can join the growing number of cities using RCV, or we can spend well over $ 1.2 million on a second, three-month election,” said Linda Templin, RCV executive director for Colorado. “There is a better way and it is available.”

Opponents say ranked voting is not a guarantee of a majority of candidates, as it is in runoff elections, and it can incapacitate voters by discarding ballot papers that do not rate the most popular candidates.

For example, the winning candidate in an RCV election in San Francisco in 2010 was only listed on 4,321 out of 20,440 ballots cast, meaning only 21.1% of voters voted for the candidate and about half of them rated the candidate Second, third or lower selection.

The candidate won the election after 20 elimination rounds because 21 candidates ran and the majority of voters did not put all 21 on their ballot papers, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections.

Problems were also reported when New York City held its first ranked election in June, with the results being falsely reported. It took more than two weeks for all of the winners to be announced.

Denver City Councilor Kevin Flynn, a member of the clerk’s advisory committee, argues that the intricate nature of the RCV could result in lower voter turnouts and higher rejections of incorrectly completed ballot papers.

“Denver already has a superior runoff system and the timing problem can be easily fixed by changing the date,” said Flynn. “The runoff is the only electoral system that guarantees a majority winner every time. Not only can RCV not guarantee a majority winner, it even does so as a matter of routine. “

Five of the seven members of the case handler’s advisory committee recommended postponing the local elections to April in order to implement ranked voting, Flynn said.

Postponing the local elections to April would create problems of its own.

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s census data has been delayed by six months and won’t be delivered to the states until September 30th. The delay has resulted in significant delays in the Denver redistribution process, which could disrupt the 2023 city council election.

To run for the Denver City Council, candidates must have lived in their borough for at least one year. But if the redistribution is not completed by May 2022 – a year before the next council election – council members and potential candidates whose district is switched will not be able to run.

And moving the elections from May to April would give the council one month less to complete the month-long reallocation process on time, which may not be possible.

López said he was considering other solutions to the voting problem, including rescheduling local elections to November, moving elections to a pluralism model, and moving to affirmative elections, where voters could choose as many candidates as they want.

His last two suggestions were the most popular options chosen during his public relations and engagement, López said.

“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for voters to decide who will run our city,” he said.

If any of the proposals are accepted by the city council, members will be added to the November 2021 ballot for voters to consider.

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