tv Ethics Commission SFGTV July 10, 2024 2:30pm-4:00pm PDT
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know, the day before we signed the last budget . so while on one hand, we should be very proud of all the work that we have collectively done we negotiated a budget that saved many vital services. we have restored funding for public health, including funding for oral health for kids, food access through neighborhood based or grocery access, youth and family services like child care and violence violence prevention programing. but i also have to say, on the other hand, we also have conceded to funding a light show and free parking for downtown. if we're unwilling to do what's necessary, it will be done for us in six months. so, regrettably, many of us have yet to come to grasp the reality of our fiscal future. and instead, today we're still advancing a budget. i want to say has significant growth and will continue to increase our structural deficit. this does mean, though, i think, for everyone in this room, because i think there's a reason why you're in this room. i really believe that this is a group of people, and probably many people
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outside of this chamber, too. and believing in that. what can we do to come together to serve the people, the good people of san francisco, and that we're here to support the people the working families and the most vulnerableand so i want to say , regrettably, to say this too is that it does mean we have to fight on, so today and tonight. so maybe tonight just tonight we can have a toast or two for getting this budget done. but the reality is tomorrow we have to go back to work and keep fighting for a budget that every san franciscan deserves, because again, i think that this is a moment, but get back to work. so with that, colleagues, i would like to move items three and four. but before i do that, i need to allow our budget director and our tuning to, really make those technical adjustments proposed by the mayor. is that correct? like
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let's have you read those out loud. and, colleagues, you you you should actually have a copy in front of you, a technical one, but technical letter. thank you. budget chair and supervisor chan, and i agree. i did not expect to be leaving here so soon. so thank you for your leadership. everybody's collaboration and cooperation throughout the last few weeks in front of you should be a draft. and it just says draft because there might be some typos on here, but this should be the extent of the additional technical adjustments that the mayor will be making to the budget that accompanies the list of, the spending plan that was also passed out and described by supervisor chan, a few things to highlight from that list. i'm not going to read the whole thing. but it restores funding for community flea market operations at the office of the city administrator. we're rebalancing expenditures in the mta's budget, we're allocating
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staffing funds and reclassifying positions for illegal vending enforcement at public works. it adds fte in the public defender's office, which. will be placed on mayor's reserve pending further. discussions between the mayor and the public defender, and then finally and. importantly, we are. appropriating the nine or proposing to. appropriate the.
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$9.8 million that the bla identified, that $9.8 million does grow the budget, but it enables the. spending plan that supervisor chan mentioned earlier. so. altogether, these adjustments, should. finalize the budget and we will give you the full. copy of this, later tonight or first thing tomorrow. thank you. thank you. and i do
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want to, with the advice of our city attorney, that we wanted to, acknowledge and accept the spending plan. so with that, i'm . looking across the aisle. may i start roll call the motion move forward with the motion to. approve items three and four, which is a budget to full board with recommendation. second by vice chair mandelman. i'm. looking at my colleagues. we're ready to cast a vote and roll call, please c c c c c c c c c c c
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c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c >> good morning. welcome to the june 14, 2024 regular meeting of san francisco ethics commission. today's meeting is live on sfgovtv and online at sfgovtv.org. members may attend in person or participate by phone or webex platform as explained in the agenda document. mr. clerk, please explain how remote public comment will be handled?
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>> public comment will be available on each item on the agend a. each member of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak. for those in person, opportunities to speak during the public comment period will be made in room 400, city hall. those remotely, public comment period could be provided via phone call by calling 1-415-655-0001. access code is 26611040049 fallowed by the pound sign and then press pound again to yoin as a attendee. when your item comes up, press star 3 to raise your hand to be added to the public comment line. public comment is also available via webex client application. use the link on the agenda to connect and press raise hand button to be added to the line. for detailed instructions how
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to interact with the telephone system or webex, please refer to the public comment section of the agenda. public comment may be submitted in writing and shared with the commission after the meeting concluded and included as part of the file. written comments should be sent to ethics.commission@sfgov.org. those who attend are specificed to behave responsiblely. please direct comments to members as a whole. persons who engage in name calling may be excluded from participation. >> thank you. i now call the meeting to order. [gavel] please call roll. >> please indicating by saying
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aye. [roll call] you have a quorum. >> thank you. with that, i call item 2. are there public comment speakers in the audience? >> let me start your time. time started again. >> good morning. happy friday. my name is ellen zhou. i pledge the allegiance to the flag of united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indevisable.
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i was serving for san francisco all most 20 years and wrongfully terminated due to not accepting the covid-19 vaccine shots. there are hundreds of public employees wrongfully terminated like me in 2021 and 2022, 32 cases still in court fighting to get our job back. i have been working and living in san francisco more then 38 years. i was nominated to run for mayor in 2018 and 2019. ethic commission department has been discriminating after i exposed corruption in san francisco. 2024, i am running for mayor again. i will never surrender to evil, but i have been discriminated against. i am not allowed to debate or
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organize by the [indiscernible] the last time i spoke to you was friday, february 9, 2024 which i spoke against san francisco ethics commissioners unethical unlawful investigation against conservative candidates like me. yes, i'm a mother, i am a prolife person, i am a health worker and against illegal drugs and yes i'm a republican and yes i support president trump. today i'm here to inform you i'm running for san francisco mayor for november 2024 election. i believe the god of abraham, jacob and isaac will save san francisco if you me we [indiscernible] humble ourselves and god will hear our prayers and heal our land, san francisco.
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i don't give up my city and i believe god will save us when we stop murdering little human beings. protect our children and let god in san francisco. save san francisco from god's judgment. i urge all of you to repent, turn from your wicked ways to return to god law and order. just to let you know, if you are conducting public services you have no notice outside the door. there is no notice outside the door for this meeting. thank you. >> >> anyone else in the room who has public comment? seeing none, mr. clerk, are there callers in the queue? >> acting chair, salahi there are no callers in the queue with hands raised. >> thank you. hearing no further members of the public wishing to speak, general public
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comment under item 2 is now closed. i now call the consent calendar. colleagues, as noted on the agenda, there is no separate discussions on consent calendar item unless request is made by a commission member or member of the public in attendance, in which event the matter shall be removed and considered as separate item. if any commissioners asks to discuss item that will be taken after regular calendar. does anyone wish to discuss any items on consent calendar? i move the executive director's
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report to the regular calendar. there being no otto approve the remainder of the consent calendar? there is no action required here, actually. mr. clerk, are there any callers in the queue for public comment on the consent calendar? >> there are no callers in the queue with hands up. >> i invite members in public in person and wish to provide public comment on the consent calendar to please proceed. >> my name is ellen lee, zhou. i am here to inform you, you are running a public hearing, but there is no notice outside your door. i believe it is 72 hours beforehand or week beforehand and if you just post it now, i don't think your
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meeting is legally conducted. i am here to oppose the ethic commission for the public hearing you have been doing illegally, number one. i have been coming in here to report to you. there is election interference. i make numerous complaints to you, the public ethic commission. in 2018, 2019 and 2024. and letting you know, i was in here february and i'm here today. as of june 7, 2024, we have 53 people registered to run for mayor of san francisco. i am one of the 53 people. i was not allowed-not mentioned by the organized crime. june 12, 2024, the last day of
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cut-off for candidates for board of supervisors and for mayor. we now have 13 people qualified candidates to run for mayor for san francisco and you will see all this organized crimes telling people only 5 people running for mayor, so my question for you, the ethic commission, you are set up to regulate fraud, regulate anything related to the government that is not good. yes. my question to you all, have you done anything to investigate election fraud? election interference? when we have 13 people qualified to run for mayor, paid all most $7300 for the process, for the application, but none of the 8 people, qualified 8 people because we have 13 people, minus-self-identified 5 people,
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but what happened to the other 8 people? isn't the ethic commission supposed to do something about election interference, about illegal voting and voter information and public true information about candidates and about board of supervisors and mayor candidates. i'm asking you, if you conduct a meeting in here and have no notice beforehand and continue to conduct the business in here, you illegally running a business in here today. you can talk to the district attorney. ask them, because i work for public servant before. >> caller, your time expired. acting chair, salahi we do have someone in the remote queue who would like to speak. >> alright. thank you. >> welcome caller, your three minutes begins when you begin to speak. >> yes. are you able to hear me?
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>> yes, we are. >> good. perfect. i am a nominee for mayor, and i are do concur that the most recent public debate was extremely limited in the number of nominees who were included in the debate, and it did aclyuse if i understand correctly the sydney goldstein theater is part of san francisco unified school district and therefore city property, so the debrate was limited in the number of candidates that were invited or permitted to speak during public debate in what to me at least is part of city public property, so it will be beneficial if it were more inclusive of the other candidates and their platforms as well. that is entirely my input. i thank you very much for holding this meeting. >> mr. clerk, are there further
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callers in the queue? >> there are no more callers in the queue with hands up. >> hearing that, public comment on consent calendar is now closed. for discussion item number 4, which i requested discussion on, executive director, thank you very much for the report and congratulations on securing the full budget request from the mayor's office. your report noted that there was a committee meeting before the budget appropriation committee this week and wundsered if there were updates for that. >> patrick ford, executive director. i appeared before the budget appropriation committee of the board of supervisor wednesday to present the budget that we talked about back in january and february and the mayor proposed supporting in her proposed budget. i can report back that the
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budget chair, supervisor connie chan, did not have a favorable overall reaction to that budget proposal and what i heard from her since following up with her office after that is she in general does not support recruiting new positions, nor reclassifying any positions. that is her baseline approach to this year's budget. so, it isn't over till it is over, obviously we'll keep working on this and try to express how important this and why we need this to get done the important work we need to get done, so i wish had better news from that hearing and it did come as bit of surprise to us, but anyhow, we'll keep working on that and you, if you have any interest of being a part of the budget process, that can sometimes be helpful to have commissioners involved, so let me know. >> thank you for that update. disappointing news. clarification, you said that was the baseline approach. was that specific to the
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commission or to the extent you know? >> sure. what i mean to say is that is her general approach to the city's budget overall, so that is not-according to her uniquely directed at our proposed budget, but how she is approach all departments proposed budgets right now. but hopefully we can advocate and successfully get a budget that departs from that, at least in part. >> thank you. any further questions? >> in your report you mentioned that this year's fiscal year 24 operating budget $7.1 million and fiscal year 25 it is $6.8 million, that is what you are hoping for, is that sufficient? >> that is correct. we are hoping for only a 3 percent reduction in the baseline budget and actually that would allow us to fill some positions, because we have a number of positions that we are required to hold vacant on a ongoing basis to meet attrition targets
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and salary saves as part of our budget, so if we were to only experience that 3 percent reduction, it actually allows us to fill some positions. that is what we are hoping for, but obviously what we are hearing from the board so far, it is very early stage, potentially they may want a greater reduction. >> thank you. >> but to answer your question, i think that budget-i think it would put us in a really good place for fy25. >> thank you. >> alright. hearing no-- >> commissioner deputy city attorney. i after you finish this item and take public comment on it, i think you need to go back to consent calendar because i don't believe there was vote to approve the items, including the minutes. >> thank you for the reminder. let's take public comment on item number 4 first.
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executive director's report. >> good morning again, my name is ellen, zhou, i am here to hand public record that your commissioners have been illegal running a department because you are not doing your job. you are just whoever the staff get paid and director continue to abuse the public system. we have so many people running for office, but it is the same few people controlling it, so whatever the item and item number 4 you ask for opinion, you ask for [indiscernible] you are illegally running a meeting today because there is snow quorum and no publicity outside the door required by law, so that is what i understand and if you continue the meeting i let you know you are illegaing today so i'm here to hand you the paper and let you know. i'm not against anybody, but
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because i work and live here for 38 years, and i have seen this department was created in the 1996 to stop corruption. then, i now find out in 2024 i continue to see the same corruption the ethic commission is set up for money laundering to run our government. so, in my opinion, without ethic commission or with ethic commission it is the same result that is illegally running a government destroy our lively lihood. homeless continue to come in here to use the numbers and names and for their own political gains, so today i'm here, not only opposed ethic commission for today's meeting and today's approval,
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whatever you are doing, because you obviously are not running a government for the people. if you are running for the people, you should have been saying about the allegiance that you pledge the flag of the united states. this is the government of united states, this is not a communist government or dictateership government, this is we the people government and all the money that is spent by san francisco ethic commission isn't government money. it is taxpayer money. the government has nothing but a bunch of liars and croothe people about government programs when the money is coming from me, the taxpayers. from property tax, sales tax, income tax. many of the tax you illegally taxing, so i'm asking you if you continue this meeting, then you are not representing the people. you just represent the cabal.
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thank you. >> [indiscernible] >> there are no callers in the queue with hands up. >> thank you. is there a motion to adopt the executive director report? >> so moved. >> second. >> can we please call the roll? >> on the motion to adopt the executive director's report, salahi, yes. tsai, aye. the motion to approve the executive director report is approved unanimously. >> thank you. now returning consent calendar, which we took public comment on, is there a motion to adopt the balance of the consent calendar, item 3 and item 5? >> so moved. >> i'll second.
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please call the roll. >> on the motion to adopt the consent calendar, salahi, aye. tsai, aye. passed unanimous le. >> i call item 6, discussion and possible action regarding proposed stipulation decision and order in the matter of luis barahona. >> good morning commissioners. [indiscernible] so, thiscase involves luis barahona a senior housing inspector with dbi [indiscernible] incompatible with department by serving on the board of organization that subject to control review and inspection and enforce of his department. we believe tbe
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matter of significance, because respondent was involved in inspecting and making decisions on properties owned or managed by the tndc while serving on the board of tndc. also [indiscernible] properly disclosed professional relationship and also respondent didn't receive income from his service on the board and are those indication that those conclickt of interest, we still believe the recommended penalty amount in the matter regarding count 1 is fair and appropriate. again because of the significance of his conduct and as for count 2, the governmental conduct code currently does not permit us to assess a penalty amount for failure to disclose professional and business relationships, so that count has a zero
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penalty amount attached to it. happy to answer any questions you might have. >> thank you. open the floor to any commissioner that would like to ask questions. i think there was a comment in the report saying there wasn't evidence that the relationship actually had influence on the exercise of duties. i was curious how you came to that conclusion? >> so, we went back and looked at a bunch of inspections and decisions made and the pattern of other inspectors, how their regular practice is conducted and we didn't see deviation with respondents compared to the others. >> thank you. anyone have further questions? okay.
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with that, mr. clerk can you please see if we have anyone in person or on the phone who would like to make public comment? >> acting chair salahi we have one person in the remote queue with their hand up. >> hello. thank you for allowing my comment. it does seem incompatible for somebody to perform inspections regardless of whether those inspections have been properly performed if at the same time they are representing the interest of the tndc itself, and so i do think that that's in and of itself a serious concern that should probably be addressed regarding their ongoing employment. thank you. >> thank you caller. acting chair salahi, there are no further remote callers with their hand
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up. >> thank you. public comment on item 6 is now closed. would any commissioner like to make a motion to approve and adopt the stipulation? >> so moved. >> is there a second? >> second. >> clerk, on the motion to to adopt the stipulation in item 6, can you please call the roll? >> the motion to adopt the agenda item 6, i will call the roll. salahi, aye. tsai, aye. m francois, aye. you have a unanimously approved the motion. >> thank you. i now call agenda item 7. discussion and possible action
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regarding proposed stipulation, decision and order in the matter of mural green. >> thank you. for the record, [indiscernible] i'm not going to repeat that. i think that is clear now. this matter involves respondent green, a member of the board of trustees for city college of san francisco. respondent failed to timely file form 700 and participated in matters that appeared before his board while [indiscernible] due to failure to file the 700 form disclosure. the fact of the matter, similar to prior matters presented before this commission and penalty amount recommended per violation is based upon [indiscernible] for 4700 violations.
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[difficulty hearing speaker] here and respondent corporation with the investigation. happy to answer any questions you might have for this one. >> any comment or questioning? i have a question, not so much related to the proposed penalties or findings, but the issue. i was struck by the number of votes that happened during the period of disqualification and i was curious if theris any procedure in place or if it would be appropriate to have a procedure in place for the commission to notify other city bodies when there is a commissioner who is out of compliance, so that the work of those commissions isn't jeopardized by disqualified votes. >> all is a procedure that is actually included in the code, where the
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clerk or secretary of each commission is supposed to notify the commissioners prior to the meetings whether or not they are in compliance and can participate. i thinkimportant to revisit that and see how that's being practiced and i'll defer- >> our engagement and compliance division sends notices out to commissioners and the secretarys to let them know and we have an agenda item later about engagement in compliance operations so we could talk about that during that agenda item to get into more detail. >> thank you for the background. >> on top of what we do, before each meeting they should also have [indiscernible] >> understood, thank you.
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>> how many times was he given notice, do you know? >> let's see-- i believe it was about 7 times. page 7. okay. on november 17, december 19 and january 23, so about three times we sent e-mails to respond and this is staff-as part of the investigation, outside what had already been sent to him by engagement and compliance. i believe investigator [indiscernible] might be able to shed more light on that, because he was actively involved in this. thank you.
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>> thank you deputy matthews. eric willet, a investigator with the commission and answer to your question acting chair salahi, engagement and compliance division sent 5 notices to respondent and those notices went out both before the deadline and then after the deadline and those after the deadline notices communications identified the respondent as disqualified from participating based on his failure to fulfill his filing requirements and then, following those communications from engagement and compliance enforcement division communicated to respondent and those notifications went out three separate times to notify him of ongoing enforcement and matter and he was disqualified how to remedy his
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failure to file, as well as outlining the procedures for resolution of the enforcement matter. in total, 8 communications were sent to respondent in this matter. >> were those by letter as well, e-mail? by mail, regular mail? >> went out via e-mail address of record for respondent and then the three that went out from enforcement, i also researched additional methods of reaching the respondent electronically and also spoke to him verbally over the phone as well. >> thank you. as to the recommended penalty, i understand the rational of going from the $4 thousand baseline you thought was appropriate as comparative to
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$1300, a significant portion of the year he failed to make disclosure. >> right. >> any further discussion from commissioners? >> i have one quick question. did you not try to send any letters [indiscernible] [difficulty hearing speakers] >> all communications were electronic or over the phone. within our filing system, the communication method is via e-mail, and that is the notification preference we have on file for the city filers, and sometimes there is phone numbers associated with those filers as
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well within our filing system it is those two methods. >> to that, when we find we are not receiving responses from respondents, we take that extra step to try to reach by phone or find other methods. in this case, able to establish communication with him by phone and he was able to comply. later. >> thank you commissioners. before acting on the motion, we'll take public comment on the matter. >> good morning again. my name is ellen lee zhou, i am here to address item 7, 8, 9-this is 7.
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i have been working and living in san francisco for more then 38 years. i was nominated to run for mayor in 2018 and 2019. ethic commissioners department has been discriminating me and retaliated me after i exposed corruption. today i'm here to urge you to stop harass me and stop abusing one of my volunteer, mr. paul taylor. you try to fight him as a volunteer for $185 thousand from beginning and still going after him. today item 7, compare the money with the penalty you fine my volunteer and the people non-chinese, non-immigrant, non-republican, you see the items? 7, 8 and 9. today i'm here to inform you--excuse me, june 6, there were 53 people registered to run for san francisco mayor and as of june 12, there are 13
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qualified candidates to run for mayor and i am one of the 13 qualified to run for mayor. i'm letting you know i will not give up. today i'm also here to make public complaints similar groups who control the politicians and putting false information to san francisco voters, telling san francisco voters there is only five candidates running for mayor, which is garbage and lie. publicly lying to the voters. it is voters violation and it misinformation and election interference. it is election fraud. i demand the ethic commission to investigate election fraud. and i'm one of the 13 qualified can didates for may. look at my face, i'm alive, i'm not dead. i am republic for president trump, i am a mother and social worker and legally immigrate to america, i am a
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resident in district 9 in san francisco and i have been living and working in san francisco and i pay my tax for 38 years. today i'm here to make public record here to hand you an official complaint i filed many complaints in 2018, 2019 and this year, 2024. i demand you to investigate and intervention to stop voter fraud. so voters can vote with truthful information that we november 5, 2024 have 13 people qualified candidates for mayor in san francisco. here is my public record. letting you know item 7, 8 and 9 and item 2. i need this to be on public record, because you running a show in here. thank you. >> any speakers in the queue? >> acting chair salahi, we have one caller in the queue with their hand up.
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>> okay. >> welcome caller, your three minutes begin when you start speaking. >> hello. this is john, nominee for mayor and i wanted to add public comment regarding the notification for the person who did not file their form 700 disclosure conflict of interest. alung the 8 notification, i like to suggest it is beneficial at least one of the eight not be a phone call or electronic, but sent through certified mail, simply because it provides a paper trail as far as the fact we notified somebody and it helps prevent any heresay regarding contact with a individual who's in violation of their financial disclosure requirements. thank you very much. >> acting chair, salahi, there are no
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futher callers with hands in the queue. >> thank you. do i hear a motion on item 7? >> move to adopt. >> is there a second? >> second. >> on the motion to adopt item 7, i will call the roll. salahi, aye. tsai, aye:francois, aye. the motion is passed unanimously. >> now call item 8, discussion and possible action regarding proposal stipulation decision and order in the matter of thomas harrison. >> thank you acting commissioner salahi. director of enforcement for the record. this matter involves respondent similar to the matter we just heard respondent thomas harrison, commissioner for the sanitation and streets commission, also failed to timely-here in this case, this commissioner failed to
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timely complete his ethic training and sunshine ordinance training and also failed to file form 700 and participate in matters at meetings of the sanitation and streets commission while disqualified from doing so. happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this as well. >> comment from commissioners? >> did the respondent provide any excuses as to why they didn't do the training before assuming office? >> commissioner salahi-- [multiple speakers] i can say respondent was very
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responsive and cooperative with the commission enforcement efforts here, and outstanding requirements soon after contact from enforcement division. say accepted full responsibility and provided no excuses. >> they were well aware of the requirements before assuming office? >> i can't say that the commission provides many notices to board members and commissioners outlining their filing requirements and what that entails. whether this respondent availed themself that information i'm unsure but was very cooperative and cured outstanding requirements soon after contact with the division. >> other comment or questions? do i hear a motion on the
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matter? the script provides public comment after the motion is made but before the vote. >> move to adopt. >> i second. >> before acting on the motion made and seconded, we will take public comment on the matter. any members of the public wish to speak in person, please proceed to the podium. >> again, good morning. my name is ellen lee zhou, this is regarding item number 8. i have never in my life experienced such corruption. the most unethical department is ethical commission department. i run for mayor in 2019. i set up a billboard about
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human and sex traffics and about homeless being treated as a number and i reported to you my campaign billboard and many of my posters was removed illegally in a few days after i put it out. ethic commission did nothing. nothing! instead, ethic commission go after me year after year, week after week from 2019 until last year. $185 thousand for put up a billboard. the people in item 7 and 8 and 9, are they anywhere near $185 thousand? $185 thousand. you see en black, blue, yellow and chinese? you see the difference between democrats and republican and you see the differences between people who are good and telling you the truth and people who did not meet the
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tiny requirement? ethic commission organized and created by a lot of people and letting the public know there is lot of corruption within the deep state running san francisco city hall. then ethic commission turn around and target the people like me. i'm a mother, i'm a family social worker, i work for public helt the truth about covid-19 and the shot and i told about agenda 21 that plan to kill san franciscans and plan the truth. what did ethic commission go after? they not only go after me, ellen lee zhou about drug traffic and --penalize $185 thousand and when i
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finished my case i have no where to go and harass a volunteer paul taylor and still continue to go after him. he came here with a crew, group of people and telling you, this department , it's facing a lawsuit and it is coming. i'm urging you in here the people in here, i'm not targeting anybody, just letting you know what happened to my life, just because i'm a conservative mother and immigrant, chinese. thank you. >> thank you. acting chair salahi, we have one call er in thremote queue with their hand up. welcome caller, your three minutes begin when you start speaking. caller in the queue, if you would like to speak, you can do so now.
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caller, trying for a third time. would you like to speak, you can do so now. >> my name is olivia lou, am i allowed to speak now? >> yes. >> thank you very much. my name is olivia lou and serve a different county, and i just want to make a notation as to how i want to [indiscernible] into what she is doing for san francisco. and also wanted to say that, the voters are backing her up. the voters are seeing what is happening in san francisco. we also would like to encourage the commission to go into the direction for the voters to make san
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francisco better and to have candidates like ellen zhou to give her a fair opportunity to voice out and to have a right to represent the people and to make san francisco better. i think that is also the hope of the commission. thank you. >> mr. clerk, any other callers in the queue? >> acting chair salahi, no further callers with their hands up in the queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 8 is now closed. mr. clerk, on the motion to adopt and approve item number 8, proposed stipulation on the matter of thomas harrison, please call the roll. >> i will call the roll, acting chair salahi, aye. commissioner tsai, aye. commissioner francois, aye. acting chair salahi, with three
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votes in the affirmative, the motion to approve item 8 is approved unanimously. jurks >> i call item 9. discussion and possible action regarding the proposed stipulation, decision and order in the >> thank you again, acting chair salahi. this matter, similar to the previous two we just heard involves respondent, daneen hadley, failed to timely file form 700 disclosures and also participated in matters at meetings before the board while disqualified from doing so. happy to answer any questions that you have about this matter.
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>> sending the notice by e-mail, was there verbal conformation she received the e-mails? >> i'll differ to you on that. >> commissioners tsai, i can say that the respondent received five notices from the engagement and compliance division sent electronically and went by enforcement division and upon receipt that one notice from enforcement division, respondent cured their outstanding filing requirements within 8 days. there was rapid cooperation with the commission enforcement matter. >> was the respondent aware they were not in compliance with filing the required form 700?
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>> i can say that the respondent accepted the responsibility for the outstanding filing requirements. >> to add to that the respondent did receive all the notices sent to all city officials and commission-people required to file form 700. >> any further questions or comment? is there a motion on the matter? >> i move to adopt. >> i second. >> before acting on the motion, made and seconded, we'll take public comment on the matter. >> public comment. good morning again. francisco. my name is ellen lee zhou.
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compared to item 7, 8 and 9 for i'm here to advocate for anyone who run for office. ethic commission should not penalize or fine people coming to office. your job is work with people and help people go through the process. where is the money and fine going to go? we the public, we the taxpayers already pay you salary, pay your ethic department. there is no need to penalize people. your job ethic department was set up to stop corruption, but you are not stopping corruption. you target people who did not know the process, who do not know the game, who are not part of the kabal because people do not know the situation. in 2019, i run for mayor, i put up a
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campaign billboard and are was about stop slavery and human traffic in san francisco and? some city leaders have the voters in san francisco not to vote for me and calling me racist. calling me a white supremacist and tearest and my bill board was illegally removed. it is called election interference. i reported to ethic commission and what do you do? penalize me for $185 thousand to put up a billboard. when my lawyer was looking into it, you dropped the case and then you go after one of my volunteer, mr. paul taylor for the same amount of money you wanted to fine. $185 thousand. so, compared to item 7, 8, 9, where is the penalty? i'm not talking about the
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people, i'm talking about the penalty. how do you come up with all these penalty against conservative like me, i'm immigrant and mother. i don't care who people associate with, i don't care if people are married, people are single, i don't care. i run for mayor to wake people up. i run for mayor and want you to know san francisco ethic commission, i want you to wake up and have common sense. my message is about to better improve our city. my message is about stop human traffic. we have so many missing people dying on the street. missing people from san francisco and i put up the billboard and you turn around, this ethic commission turn around and penalize me, fine me and when i make the report and you target me, now i know because oo i'm a trump supporter and chinese and minority women and this ethic commission should be removed, because it is not effective for the voters.
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>> any callers in the queue? >> chair salahi, there are no callers in the remote queue with hands up. >> thank you. public comment on item 9 is now closed. on the motion to adopt and approve item 9, stipulation in the matter of denene daneen hadley, roll call. >> salahi, aye. tsai, aye. francois, aye. with three votes in affirmative the motion passed unanimously. >> thank you. i now call item 10. staff presentation on engagement and compliance programs. >> good morning commissioners. i just need to set up my presentation and then i'll get started.
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i think we are set now. sorry about the delay there. good morning commissioners. my name is kyle kennedy, engagement and compliance manager and here to give a overview of the work of engagement and compliance division and tell about exciting initiatives in our division to improve the service we are offering. you heard from all three team
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members at the last few commission meetling. john kim the senior program administrator gave a presentation on lobbyist commissioning. [indiscernible] providing on campaign finance regulations you all passed at that meeting, and you hear from kevin kencade, he is out today but normally clerks the meetings. as my team works hard every day and excited to have a chance to talk to you about wlaut they do. i will talk about what engagement and compliance does. engagement compliance is responsible for administering the agency disclosure programs of which there are six and i will talk about all thoest in a bit more detail on the next slide. generally we administer these programs by providing advice guidance and technical assistance to filers. reviewing disclosure filings to
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insure timeliness and assisted with programs and data sets and we also cover the front door, the main phone line and the general to insure all requests are responded to in a timely manner. that's what we do in a general sense. that said, we administer the 6 disclosure programs and you can break those 6 programs into two categories. the first is higher volume programs and i will talk about those first. we campaign finance program which publicize raising and spending in city elections to help voters make informed divisions at the polls. and there are quite a few filings in this program, but the main ones are registration and termination beginning and end of campaign life cycle as well as semiannual reports which occur twice a year every year in january and july. we are getting for the july filing next month and then finally there are preelection reports which occur during the election year and there are three of them that are on a set
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deadline. we have those disclosures and my staff assist filers with late contribution, late expenditure reports which are activity based disclosures opposed to deadline disclosures. we have the lobbyist program, which sheds light on contacts with city officers regarding official action so the public has insight into what eptties are trying to influence policies that effect their lives. and john kim gave a in depth presentation on that program so won't go into too much detail but include registration, repreregistration and termination and monthly reports lobbyists submit. next we have the statement of economic interest or form 700 program, which provides insight into financial interest of government officers and employ ees. and this is likely the program you are all most familiar with because you are
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all form 700 filers and i think had contact with kevin kincade in the office who assist filers assuming office annual and leaving office form filings. those are our major high volume programs, but in addition, we have three smaller volume programs that are just as important. we have our campaign consultant program, which requires individuals providing campaign management or strategy services in city elections to register with us and disclose certain information about political contributions they make, gifts they receive and payments received and promised. our permit consulting program requires individual providing permit scunlting to register with the office and disclose information on the contacts they make . as well as certain political contributions that they make. and finally, we have our major developer program, which requires real estate developers with major real estate projects to register
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with our office and disclose information on non profits they contribute to, who then provides public comment or contact city officers regarding that project. so, as you can see, brief overview, engagement and compliance does a lot and administration of these programs involves not just the processing and accepting of forms that are submitted and also insuring individuals have all the information that they need to successfully comply with rules and requirements that they are subject to. so, my staff does a incredible job with ad hoc advise and technical assistance from filers and sending things like courtesy reminders and filing deadlines and important information filers need to know but we strive to do better and to that end, there are few division wide and program specific initiatives that i want to highlight for you this morning. so, starting with our division wide initiatives, answering questions from both the filers and public is
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part and parcel what engagement and compliance does every day. i say the most important thing we do is make sure folks know what they are doing. we launched a online support portal for form 700 program and it is very similar to customer service portals you may have experienced. private company and tech support you put in request online and get response back. we implemented the system for form 700 and had up and running for a few years and been a effective system because it gives a centralized ticketing system that tracks the request we receive and improve response time. excited to announce over the last few months we launched support portal for the rest of the 5 programs and they are up and running and expecting ticket frz all of them. this is helps us further standardioperations in our division and allowing us to utilize built in features and tools within the support portal to track relevant
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information, including research we do for advice questions we receive, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel and can check the research we have already done to a substantially similar question when it comes in. now, my team is available as a resource when filers have questions, but also as important is making sure there are references and resource materials that folks in access without having to directly contact my team and so, we are working on and refor matting guidance pages oen the agency website to improve the user experience and make information a little more readily available and so that is a process we have had underway for quite some time. we are working on campaign finance program first and then going to turn our attention to some of the other program areas under engagement and compliance in the coming months. finally, the last initiativeto highlight relates to our business processes and documentation of them. uniformity in the policy and procedures is really key to providing substantially similar high
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quality service to the community, and so my team is working on documenting all the protocols for filer registration and terminations, disclosure filing reviews, and all other critical business process related to compliance program and this is helping us identify areas where efficiency could be improved and more flexibly and [indiscernible] so, in addition to these division wide initiatives we have a few program specific nishtivals iment to talk about. in the form 700 program, my team is working on developing a library of short 1 to 2 minute tutorial videos that demonstrate the most commonly used feature in the system. these videos are aimed at filing officers and filers, but the emphasis is on filing office rbz. rs. on-board and off-boarding a filer which
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is something we get questions about ahn and also create a video how to complete the sunshine and ethics training and the steps to complete so the ethics filers have a additional resource knowing how to complete that requirement when they are doing annual filings. in addition, we are working and implementing a filing officer engagement plan to insure awe are offering all the support and resources and training that our departmental filing officers feel they need to successfully administer the form 700 program at their department. we sent a survey last month to the filer officers for feedback on training and resources they are looking for and we are using the responses from those to taylor the rest of engagement plan. we plan reaching out to the filing officers again in the coming weeks to offer short meetings with them to discuss their business processes around the form 700 within their department to see if we are offer best practice or provide additional resources
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that might make their jobs easier. in addition to those, we are working on initiative in campaign finance program. i want to highlight the team revamped and redid our candidate and treasurer training. as you may be aware, candidates and treasurers and treasurers for city primarily formed city primarily formed candidate and ballot committees are required to take training and we split our training into two different types, so we have two live trainings we offer. one is candidate controlled communities and the other on general form committee to focus the information and make sure the content is as tailored as possible to attendees at our training. and then in our campaign consultant program, we are working with our edit division on setting up online registration and filing process for the campaign consultant program
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that help eliminate the last paper base disclosure system which is something i am very excited about. we have a goal of implementing that by january 1 and we are very confident this will simplify and streamline the process for the consultants required to register and file with us. so, i are want to end on just a snapshot of numbers that really illustrate the great work of my team. between january and april of this year, my team processed 174 committee registrations in the campaign finance program so that include both form 501, which are candidate intention statements and 410, statement of organization and those are documents all political committees submit. that 174 does not say anything about all the filings my team processed. there are quite few campaign filings for the primary that my team worked on. in addition, in the first 4
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months of the year resolved 516 tickets. the majority were in our form 700 portal because it was the only that ist xed for the four month span so we expect the number to tick up now all the portals are up and running and being utilized by the regulated community. finally, my team in the first four months this year assisted 105 walk-ins who came to the ethic commission office to drop off forms, pick up materials, ask questions and generally just get their bearings with the rules and requirements. and my team fielded 686 phone calls to the main office phone line. some of the calls were likely routed to other staff at the agency, potentially enforcement or audit but vast majority were fielded by my team directly because most folks who call the office main line are looking to speak to someone on my team to get their
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questions answered and see what they have to do in terms of filings. what i provided is a brief overview what my team does. they take a lot of pride offeric prompt high quality service and i appreciate the opportunity to come here today and talk about their work. i am happy to answer any questions you might have. >> thank you. that was very helpful, informative. open for questions? >> with respect to this is wonderful, thank you for the presentation. very comprehensive. there is a lot here for candidates and those that are assuming office to understand. is it possible to provide us information to candidates as soon as they declare the candidacy? >> that is something my team worked on throughout the last few months is creating a welcome e-mail, touch point when registering with our office. so, my [indiscernible] our point person
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on the campaign finance program will send an e-mail to folks when they submit 501 and 410 just to insure they have the information they need. there is bit on there about the training requirement as well as other important information, so that is something i think is really important in compliance programs is making sure at the out-set, you receive the information that you need to at lease immediately comply with the first rules and then it is always a learning process in a situation like that. >> great. thank you. >> it is really impressive to see the high number of request for help that you all receive and are able to triage. curious if you have a sense for the online tickets, if there is average turn around time on those and relatedly, if they tend to fall in certain buckets of questions that might inform website design or outreap? outreach? >> all the records it gives us-my team
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categorizes the tickets. the vast majority are more technical assistance nature. when you are using is system you only use once a month or every 3 months you forget password or something. a lot is technical but a lot of advise questions as well and categorize those as well so we have repository to look back on. average turn around, i don't have off the top of my head. the great thing is it does track the time to first response and time to resolution for every ticket, so that is information i can absolutely get you very easily and perhaps include in the executive direc the next meeting. >> that is great. that will be illuminating. the tracking seems useful getting a sense--is there similar tracking of phone calls or walk-in and that sort of thing? >> yes, my team will enter-they are more abbreviated tickets for phone calls. they just summarize what the
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conversation they had was. generally when folks call in if they have a complex question we'll ask them to submit it in writing so we can respond in writing and make sure there is a paper trail and a record of the research we did. but they will write up blurbs on so and so called to ask this question and whatever advice or guidance they may have provided over the phone. al walk-ins is not one we started tracking via the ticket system yet. i was talking to my team about that yesterday, so we may do that in the new fiscal year but we have a sign in sheet when folks come to the office where they write their name and the general topic and the staff member that assisted them. >> thank you. also very intrigued by the web page rewrites and formatting. curious what the process looks like? is it done in house and focus on design
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principals or-? >> it is a very collaborative process, soworked closely with mary bruin because she has a design background and has taught me a lot because i know very little about design so good i can lean on her. all the rewrites are done in-house. my team is working on the content and aaron fisher gives it review so we can make sure that what we are writing makes sense to people who are not looking at this every day, who are not constantly thinking about campaign finance reporting requirements, because that is real mindset and you understand what a word means that someone else might not if they are not doing it every day. so, that is the process so far. we are in the process mocking up what the web pages will look like on a test site to be sure everything looks good before we move it over to our production site, which is again something i am getting help from the edit team on. something to note, all our is collaborative because we touch
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so many different parts of what the agency does and rely on colleagues in other divisions to provide the best services possible. >> thank you. any other comments or questions? thank you really comprehensive presentation. appreciate it. any members of the public who are present in person and would like to give comment, please proceed to the podium. >> good morning again. my name is ellen lee zhou. i am here to address item 10, this gentleman talking about how good the ethic commission is. so my question is to all of you, including him, anyone. anyone in san francisco who are voters who are living in here, how
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good can the ethic commission department be and are how good can ethic commissioners be, when we have 13 qualified people running for mayor and the organized crime leaders behind the scene keep telling the entire san francisco and the world only 5 people running for mayor, yet san francisco ethic commission did nothing to stop the organized crime that lie to the public. i believe this is election fraud, election interference, so the best practice this gentleman presented today may not be the best practices for the people in san francisco. in san francisco, we have public contacts, brown acts, sunshine
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ordinance, united states constitution and common laws. isn't there a law called equality? equality of opportunity. isn't that so? how in the world ethic commission set up in 1996 to stop corruption, but today, 2024 already, san francisco ethic commission department is the big est unethical department helping the hind the scene who pay the money, who have independent expenditure, who have super pack, the money behind the scene, organize many of the community debates for board of supervisors, mayor, and other public officials. this year, 2024, we have district 1, 3,
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5, 7, 9, 11 plus the mayor, plus other elected officials. plus, president campaign. i do not see that we should have ethic commission when they do nothing to stop election interference. it is a crime for the department to let you know about form 700 when they are not regulated, because form 700 is for election of office to complete and they are the one regulating it. so, i'm just letting you know, your department in here, commissioners and the staff think about you have done to mislead the public and the voters. >> your time expired. >> thank you. >> chair salahi, we have one caller in the remote queue with their hand up. caller, your 3 minutes begins when you
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start speaking. >> hello. thank you for the opportunity again, john, one of the nominees for mayor. i really wanted to commend the ethic commission on their level of confidence in person with their staff. i spent extensive time studying both the state and city campaign finance disclosure laws, and the level of knowledge and confidence each of the staff demonstrated making it so efficient to simply go through 20 questions and get very straight forward because i prepared in advance, straight forward yes and no answer for each question was impressive and seeing the presentation today, for those who can benefit from a online ability to use different training modules and things like that is definitely an additional useful many, and i just really was very impressed with my interactions with the ethic.
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they have been extremely helpful making sure that my goal of transparency has been very easily achieved, and i was going to suggest that the sign-in sheet used in person, simply for efficiency could be something that could be scanned and thereby included not only for data retention and compliance, but also analysis as far as understanding who has sought not only assistance, but then complied with each step of the disclosure process and the presentation today i greatly appreciate ]as much as i also really wish to commend the level of confidence i encountered with the staff of the commission in person. thank you. >> thank you. anymore callers in the queue? >> there are no callers with hands up in the remote queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 10 is closed.
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i will call item 11, discus and possible action on item s for future meetings. any commissioner wish to speak to this item? thank you. we'll take public comment before moving on. >> yes. again, my name is ellen lee zhou. i am one of the 13 candidates running for mayor for 2024. i run for mayor in 2018 and targeted and harassed. in 2019 i was harassed by billboard about human trafficking and homelessness is removed. 2024 comes to realty. we have a lot of people pass away on the street. homeless people are suffering, dies, crime is--36 percent of the
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business close for good. the big companies who are paying taxes to our programs in san francisco, they left, so if you are continue to have meetings about this ethic commission, maybe behind the door close the door. think about the-are you really helping the people or just do some business and sorry to say, monkey business, because it isn't effective for voters, for people who living here. we still have the same [indiscernible] same criminals coming to san francisco targeted business, stole items, keep selling it on the street. i am challenge any of you as a individual, but i am here to present the fact that i am a conservative and because i am not a democrat in san francisco, i have been discriminated, even i pay a lot of money to run for mayor, and are
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now the organized crime keep telling the voters there is only 5 people running for mayor, when we have 53 people to start with and now we finalized the 13 candidates, so if you want to do something to help people to protect san francisco and really the thing about what you are effectively doing as ethic commissioners and ethic commission staff, i am here to urge you as a commissioners, think about what i presented to you today. i'm not here to cause trouble, because i work for public health for long time. i work for san francisco government for all most 20 years. i was wrongfully terminated in september 2022, yes, i file a lawsuit to sue them wrongfully terminated, because i refuse an experimental injection. yes, we still have 32 court
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cases against london breed, against the director of labor department and against human services director carolizeen and all the criminal leaders running our government, not for the people, because obviously the taxpayers paying for the lawsuit for the court and we the people suffering when no income to pay our bills and indirectly impacted our life so do something and help san francisco for your future meetings. thank you. >> any callers in the queue? >> acting chair salahi, we are checking and there are no hands up in the queue. >> alright. thank you. hearing no callers, public comment on item 11 is closed. under item 12, we provide additional opportunity for public comment. is there is anyone who wishes to provide comment under item 12, please proceed to the podium.
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>> again, my name is ellen lee zhou. again, i'm not here to challenge any of you as a individual. i am here to present to you and ask you to help yourself and save san francisco. if ethic commission was set up in 1996 to stop corruption, this is 2024 and you have not done so to allow equal opportunity-that the city is set up for everyone have a equal chance. however, 2021 and 2022, hundreds of christians and catholics and people turn in religious exsemption wrongfully terminated because we did not agree to
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