Community Updates

Community Meet-and-Greet with new Police Chief

Our office has invited new SF Police Department Chief William Scott

to meet with residents of the Sunset District to listen to their public safety concerns

and talk about his priorities for the year. The meet-and-greet will be held on

Thursday, April 13, from 6 – 8 p.m., in the cafeteria of St. Ignatius College

Preparatory School (2001 37th Ave.). For additional information

or to submit questions, please contact my aide Dyanna Quizon

at Dyanna.Quizon@sfgov.org or (415) 554-7460.

Recology Proposes Refuse Rate Increase, New Bin Sizes

Recology recently submitted a proposal to the SF Department

of Public Works giving notice of intent to increase refuse rates for

the first time since 2013. As proposed, the rates would increase

an average of 16.4 percent on July 1, 2017; an additional 4.98

percent on July 1, 2018; and .62 percent on July 1, 2020.

After the first increase, rates would go up by $5.70 a month

for an average single family home, from $35.18 to $40.88 for

households that currently have 32-gallon black, blue and green

bins. Recology will be changing the standard 32-gallon service

bin sizes for new customers to a 16-gallon black bin, 64-gallon

blue bin, and 32-gallon green bin to encourage more recycling and

composting. Under the proposed rate increase, apartment owners

would qualify for a discount if more than 25 percent of the

refuse volume produced is diverted from a landfill to recycling

and composting. One exciting change residents will see later

this year is the ability to bag textiles and place them in recycling

bins, which will help divert these materials from landfills.

The increased rates will fund changes to collection services,

the repurposing of the vehicle fleet to accommodate more recyclables,

an increase in illegal dumping pickup service, facility

improvements (such as updating odor control systems), paying for

higher labor costs, a new landfill agreement, and the cost of complying

with state regulations for compost processing.

The Public Works Department will be holding a series of public hearings on the

rate increase, where community members can provide input and

ask questions. The public hearings will be held in April and

May. For more information, please visit the website at

http://sfpublicworks.org/refuserates. Community members can

also contact the San Francisco Rate Payer Advocate with questions

by e-mail at Info@ratepayeradvocatesf.org, by phone at

(415) 324-8477, or in writing at SF Ratepayer Advocate, c/o

R.D.J. Enterprises, 1485 Bayshore Blvd., Suite 201, SF,

CA 94124. More information about the SF Rate Payer

Advocate can be found at the website at

http://ratepayeradvocatesf. org.

Electric Vehicle Legislation

San Francisco is leading the charge once again as SF Mayor

Edwin M. Lee and I announced legislation in partnership with

the SF Department of the Environment that will make

plug-in electric vehicle (EV) charging more widely available

in new developments and those undergoing major alterations that

involve electrical service upgrades. The legislation requires 10

percent of parking spaces to be “turn-key ready” for EV charger

installation, and an additional 10 percent to be “EV flexible” for

potential charging and upgrades. The remaining 80 percent of

parking spaces will be “EV capable” by ensuring conduit is run

in the hardest to reach areas of a parking garage. We are seeing

the demand for EVs grow and installing EV infrastructure in

new construction can actually reduce costs for EV charging by

75 percent or more. I also introduced legislation that will ensure

our own city fleet of light-duty vehicles is 100 percent zero

emission by the year 2020. San Francisco has always

been an environmental leader, and my office will continue to

advocate on behalf of future generations so they can enjoy a

clean and healthy environment.

New Lactation in the Workplace Policy

In 2015, the SF Board of Supervisors passed legislation I

authored requiring a higher standard of lactation accommodation

for city employees than federal and state law require. Last

month, I introduced legislation that will go further and require

all employers in San Francisco to provide minimum standards

for their employees who request lactation accommodations.

New mothers who return to work face many barriers, including

finding suitable and affordable child care, balancing a new

schedule and continuing to provide breast milk if they so

choose. While the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends

exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued

breastfeeding for 1 year or longer, only 16 percent of mothers

participating in the San Francisco Women, Infants and

Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program for low-income

women are exclusively breastfeeding at six months.

California state law already requires employers to provide a

private space, other than a restroom, and reasonable unpaid

break time for its employees to express milk. Our city law will

go further by requiring mandatory minimum standards for lactation

accommodation (a clean space, chair, surface to place a

breast pump and access to a sink and refrigerator), require a workplace

lactation policy, a process by which employees request lactation

accommodation, and also requires new construction and

renovations of a certain size and occupant load to include lactation

facilities. The SF Department of Public Health

will be developing a model lactation accommodation policy

and a sample lactation accommodation request form that can

be downloaded by employees and employers. This policy is meant to ensure

women are supported when returning to the workplace and to

make lactation accommodations a regular part of employment

conversations. The legislation will be heard at the SF Board of Supervisors’ Land Use

Committee on Monday, April 24, at 1:30 p.m., and can be found at

https://goo.gl/SwWcyv. For questions, please contact Ashley

Summers at (415) 554-7460 or ashley.summers@sfgov.org.

San Francisco Supervisor Katy Tang represents District 4.