officers were not scheduled to show up. in some cases even showed up -- and i know they show up with their arms because they are required to, but they in some cases threatened the investigators. so looking at these statistics,and looking at the documents provided by o.c.c., oh, it is not always clear exactly what is going on. [bell] president marshall: anymore public comment on item number 4? >> good evening, commissioners and chief. i want to comment on the dog unit. i am thrilled it is going to continue. i am thrilled you have taken the actions that you have. i wanted to mention one aspect i know of. sometimes there are vicious people as well.

in this case, a few years ago, at upper douglas, three dogs died in quick succession. all of them had gone to upper dog park. mine was the first. i went to the dog unit. i didn't know it was just the vicious dog unit. but i went to sergeant herndon and officer denny. they investigated it. they met with all the doge dog owners of the dogs that had died. they followed up with vets to find out what might be the likely causes of the dogs dying. they did investigations, and they helped to allay our fears that we had a poisoner in our dog park. so it isn't just thursday afternoons. it was very important. they did everything that they could to fine out what the problems were.

it is not just the vicious dogs, but the work they have done with dogs in other contexts, and i hope that can continue with the dog unit, because it truly is a community treasure and we respect it very greatly. thank you very much. is president marshall: next speaker please. >> good evening, commissioners. i want to thank you all for the dog court. it is a reflection of yet another progressive way of san francisco dealing with social issues. i want to thank the department for clearing up the miscommunication so quickly and so well. commissioner hammer mentioned sergeant herndon for

accommodation -- for com men dation -- for commendation. we can codify some of the resources he used for his position. i'm happy to hear sergeant hicks is also ined in ed conditional -- educational efforts. thank you very much. it is a pleasure to be at a public hearing with nothing negative to say. president marshall: steck around. -- stick around. [laughing] >> i would like to ask, first of all, one of the things i respected about sergeant herndon and officer denny is i didn't always agree with them, but i trusted them. they would be perhaps stricter than i would be, but i would trust what they were dealing with and i would trust what they

decided. i liked officer denny's awareness of the sub text in some situations. i work in the sheriff's department sometimes. and i also used to live in a neighborhood that was very old that had a lot of old families and a lot of crack. it turned out that the crack houses were also the old family houses. by started to see the crack was a social problem in our community. and one of the dogs in the area was a dangerous dog. and the family was eventually brought to vicious dog court. they didn't know how to deal with the things that needed to be done because the family was falling apart. but the dog being taken away

from them ripped the family apart more. i would like to see some kind of social work aspect in some of these cases, because it goes far beyond the dog. and i would like to tee the court named something beyond vicious dog court. something where people are not only educated, but they need some further resources on this item. president marshall: lieutenant, next item, please. >> item 5 is the election of commission officers. president marshall: we are back to this. i would ask -- we have a new commissioner coming on board in the next couple, two or three weeks, i hope. anyway, he's been nominated mple i would like ask we put this over until the new commissioner

is on board. that's my suggestion. i don't know if i have a second, but that's my thought. commissioner dejesus: i'll second. commissioner hammer: i'll third. >> the problem we have, they are on recess, and i don't know how long they are on recess. president marshall: i think the 5th. >> the 7th. commissioner dejesus: it could be 30 or 60 days, right sfl -- right? >> it should appear on the rules committee agenda. it has to go to rules first and then -- i don't see any indication it is on rules. >> middle of september? is that acceptable to everyone? i think we should make a decision. i don't know how long you want to put this over. president marshall: if it's not done by the 15th, we can bring it back.

commissioner hammer: i would support your motion, with the suggestion that you pick a date. president marshall: i would say the third week in september. that's the hearing meeting. i don't want to break a rule. commissioner hammer: i would support that commissioner marshall. >> as washington, d.c. preparing for that vote that will happen in a month or so, i want to put out there when what i am looking for quh i vote for a president of the commission, it is my wish list and i'll keep it very brief . someone who communicates well with the other commissioners to make sure that everyone is on board and gets information in real time as much as possible.

second one is someone who does provide true stinch oversight. so that person sometimes might disagree with the chief or agree, but that person does think with each issue what they want to do and what's best for the community and doesn't rubber stamp what the department does. the third i'm looking for is someone who makes the department and the commission as accessible as possible to the public and encourages public engagement public support. i spoke with someone recently, and he mentioned that a while ago when he would come to commission meetings it was usually full of members of the public and recently he doesn't see that many nebs of the public. -- that many members of the public.

seduce >> commissioner dejesus: i do think that that is important. that that information flows freely. i think we've been caught flat footed quite a bit this past year, and i don't know what the underlying reason is. i would echo that. president marshall: a motion. move to second it? commissioner hammer: on that note, the city attorney pointed out under the charter, the board must act within 60 days for the nomination, otherwise the pench is confirmed. and or the the mayor's nominee is confirmed. >> it is not to say he won't come on, it is just i don't want to keep delaying it. president marshall: third week. third week.

>> we have a couple potential -- president marshall: when that hearing? >> 22nd. president marshall: ok. 15th is fine. without objection. is there public comment? >> ray hart. san francisco open government director. i would like to put in my two cents as far as what i would like to see in the election of officers for this commission. i would like to see folks more interested in opening up not only the discussions that occur sometimes before this competition and timse sometimes in other venues, but opening up the police department los angeles police department and the police commission as far as the millions of dollars we spent every year doing reports and studies and things that get shuffled off and then lofert.

i really do look at an old expression, whether god shuts a door, he opens a window. i had an incident involving the san francisco police department in 2007. many of the experiences i was involved in left me with serious doubts, not about any of the san francisco police officers. the vast majority i have encountered have been honorable men and women who have a tough job and do their ultimate best to try to do that. however, i found the hierarchy of the police department and this police compligs, unfortunately, put the records that you keep and reports that you do beyond the reach of the average citizen. one of the things the sunshine

ordinance task force clearly states is that it should be organized in such a to allow a person to research the requests and ask for specific documents. in other words, i should be able to go in there and look. there have been a number of things i have tried to find and been unable to. the 2003 report from o.c.c. to the board of supervisors regarding the patterns of withholding information from occ investigators is something that interests me immensely but i was never able to find ute whether this commission actual -- out whether this commission took any action. so you can't find anything because there is no index of your documentation. there are cases i've also wanted to look in regarding the relationship between the san francisco police department and after can american members of san francisco's community. the reason is, i had the pleasure in 2008 of serving as field election deputy in the

stench precincts in the -- in the seven precincts in the president obama election. i noticed some things that occurred in that process that showed me that the african-american community has as a whole a negative opinion of the san francisco police department. one in particular, i was standing in a polling place, and a police officer walked in, and all the people in that room who were african-american simply tn turned and did not commence to vote until the officers were gone. president marshall: item 6. >> routine administrative business. back to item 6. routine administrate business.

scheduling of items at future commission meetings. under commissioner announcements, i have the assignment of disciplinary in case jwac-10. evidence to be determined by the commigger. similarly the assignment of disciplinary case jwac-10-187 for the taking of evidence on a date to be determined by the commissioner. commissioner, i did provide issues of the current document, so i have no specification recommendations but i'll leave that to your direction. president marshall: 6-a? it normally gets assigned.

>> i'm wondering if we can reverse items a and b, if the president will allow that, because under b i would like to address something pertaining to the assignment of cases. president marshall: ok. to make things easy, i will accept these two cases. let's make things easy and do it that way. >> commissioner, before we leave 6-a, i should announce the demigs will be holding a special election other than city hall, and that's next week on august 25th, next wednesday evening, the commissioner will hold its community meeting at the tende

rloin, and we will hearp comments from neighborhood residents and businesspeople in the area and also tender loin -- tenderloin station captain, joseph garritty. president marshall: a community meeting. it's been a while. >> 6-b, the scheduling of items identified for future commission meetings. president marshall: anybody? commissioner kingsley: there are two items. i think we're all -- it seems like we're in agreement in terms of discussing at another meeting the priority of addressing the issue that chief gas gone raised in connection with the parties

and the private parties and the hole in the regular regulations as to how to address outside of those clubs, how to keep the public safe. that's a priority we're going to want to discuss. another priority would be for us to discuss the backlog of disciplinary cases most efficiently. so i would propose or make a motion that we discuss these two priorities. at another meeting as soon as possible. commissioner hammer: i would second that. >> i would want clarity. we have been discussing a backlog. we put rules and procedures in place that shortened the hearings and stuff and we've also helped with these digests that will be delivered and we're getting them monthly.

so i would like to know what you mean when you say -- >> i understand, commissioner. ix cues me -- excuse me, but i haven't been part of the discussions. one of the thoughts i had in f in terms of want -- in terms of wanting to revisit it, we zil still do have quite a backlog of cases. it is routine, but this is a per view of the commission that we're responsible for in a very unique way. and that we might want to discuss it, and particularly with our new commissioner as well to see where we're going to go in terms of setting a priority. one thought, maybe we do more cases together as a whole. in addition to the individual cases. use some of our wednesday meetings to address cases.

i understand the commission did that in the past. >> the third wednesday of the month will be a commission hearing. >> and i'm wondering if, you know, i would like to hearing other folks address whether or not they would like to increase that number to maybe two or three or whatever. if we could engage in that dialogue. if we make a motion tonight whether we are going to discuss it. president marshall: we would put that down for further consideration and -- my thought about that is, really, i don't think anybody is leaving that son. woy suggest we do that. i don't want to do it again when the new person comes.

>> we also should set our priorities as a commission. i understand that annually the commission looks at its purpose and reformulates that, looks at its prortse at some point, -- priorities, at some point, objectives and goals. all of this should be discussed and voted on and priorities set. in the meanwhile, commissioners, we don't know exactly when that

will be. we can go ahead and this is the item that chief gas gone raised there evening. i would think that that is -- chief gasgon raised this evening. >> there is a motion on the floor. >> i think we should take the chief's lead on this. i any we should have a hearing on the shooting of this german tourist. at the first possible meeting we should discuss this.

part of the problem is the entertainment commission has no authority over the police commission. if we're not at the table talking about that solution then we're not going to have a solution. i think we ought to talk about it, act on it, and if we agree, to set a meeting soon, a joint meeting with the entertainment commission and try to find a solution to it. this happens all the time now and people are dying and getting hurt. the other issue, i was surprised not to see on the -- two weeks ago it was on that agenda item. two weeks ago the commissioner was here. we agreed we would transfer the

bulk of the agenda, and it disappeared. whatever happened, happened. i would just ask that at the next meeting we tackle thfment -- to tackle this. we need to focus on this like a laser beam. with that comes, i know traditionally -- traditionally, i've been here seven months -- we don't at community meetings talk about certain subject matters. i'm not sure that's the best rule. i don't know why we can't have a hearing. i would suggest breaking tradition and have an update in the community in san francisco on the d.n.a. backlog until we

have resolution to it. i would ask we put on the agenda how we agendize that. a great example. we said that tonight -- things are difficult for -- i would say this for myself and the lieutenant, we say that at the third meeting of the month we woo have -- would have nothing but the discipline matters. that's it. we would do nothing but. so it gets confusing. i would like a frank discussion on how we would like to agendaize items. it makes it difficult to set up three weeks out, a month out.

we have a general week to sort of work it in, but at the same time it is difficult to put priorities on. i mean, i thought we did a great job with your medical marijuana hearing. we looked three weeks down and said we want to do it then and there. i'd like to have that discussion to at least see how we want to preed proceed. >> i think we should keep coming back to the backlog. >> the commissioners comes on and biggy-back on that, since we have all these commiggers, something to put on the agenda in the future. and then in the near future, we will have a mini retreat f treat on a saturday morning with the

commission and putting, you know, issues that we need. how we're going to go forward, how we're going to deal with discipline. bringing people up to speed, i also think would be helpful. >> an example, these things tonight, we can bring those back, this is number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, whatever, a, b, c, we can do a lot of things. if we did that once a month, we can know it is coming. at least the lieutenant would know where she can fit things in and can't fit things in. >> now that the commission has really changed, i think it is important. >> president marshall: where you want to put it on. item 4 and item 5.

vice president mazzucco: i agree. while we are deciding what to put on the jepped, we have an issue. it is law enforcement. it is protecting against homicides. i think that goes right to the top of the stack. i am careful how we agendaize items. the following week, i would like to see this. because it is a very, very important issue. keep in mind, our number one industry is tourism. i would like the public to know how much money it costs on friday and saturday nights for us to deploy officers, the overtime. or about people in other neighborhoods when they find out 2:00 in the officer there are officers in the sunset district out on north broadway and leaving those districts not

supervised or serviced. i think we need to get that message out. with regard to the backlog, we don't have a baglog. there was a backlog of 7 officers charged, and now we're down to 31. i think we have to stay on top of it so we don't get a backlog. a lot of it is due to the commissioner's hard work, and i don't want to single anyone out, but commissioner hammer has been in trial for two months practically, and commissioners have been tremendous many helping us out. it is something i heard come out of city hall, and we don't have a backlog. over 200 sworn officers. that's pretty good.

president marshall: there are always casing coming in, and that's the issue. commissioner hammer? commissioner hammer: i think that is a good idea, commissioner marshall, and that is the once a month coming together. i think it is chaos, frankly. everybody every week saying i want to do this next week. so your idea grabbed me right away that perhaps at the start of the month we as a group say this is what's before us. we talk with the chief about what he thinks is important to the department, what he'd like guidance on or support on, and i think that might be a smart way to proceed. i think that might be a good conversation. on the commy