president roman. we have a response, and i won't be able to read it, but it concludes that they will vigorously prosecute this case. i share everybody's feelings that this is a qualified landmark. that the windows have nothing to do with architecture is an affront to anybody is logic. hair is the letter. [chime] -- there is the letter. [chime] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. then i will bring up dbi. >> i'm ben allison, president of the neighborhood association. we were also outraged when we heard about this happening in our neighborhood.

many of us had attended this church and the families had attended the church for a long time. we support you in trying to save the artifacts from the church and we also feel the same way that some of the windows would have not been personal property of the church. anyway, i wanted to state that the neighborhood association did not have any kind of contact with the academy either. we had nothing that came to us to talk about this. that is why we are somewhat shocked. holly support this proposition to try to get the artifacts haulback. supervisor mirkarimi: may i bring up the department of building inspection.

are you familiar with what happened? >> i was the one that wrote the notice of violation. we had numerous complaints that there was work without a building permit going on, fixtures being removed. i went up there around 2:00 that day, and what i saw was an altar removed. all of the accused -- pews were gone, some of the windows were boarded up. there is no structural -- you would have needed a building permit or something like you would for a kitchen remodel. supervisor mirkarimi: they are contesting the idea that they

would need a permit. >> if it is permanently affixed to the building, it is a fixture. supervisor mirkarimi: i think this may have transacted before you came into the room, they said it was considered personal property. why would that be an exemption? >> i know of no exemption. supervisor mirkarimi: doesn't provide for the church or any religious institution? what time of day was that you visited the premises? >> the afternoon. supervisor mirkarimi: did they honor the stock work order? >> they did not. supervisor mirkarimi: what is the procedure thereafter?

>> they are issued a second notice and a reply card -- we placard the building. the police are notified. it is placed on the building. supervisor mirkarimi: once it has left the city or left the state, does it complicate war began the difference of procedure? does the city still follow the rules with regard -- >> the notice basically told them to stop work and they did not stop work. whether they took all of that, part of it, we don't get into where it went. supervisor mirkarimi: i have no further questions. supervisor maxwell: if they had

gotten a permit to do the work, -- >> it would have been fine to remove those fixtures. it would have been a symbol permits. >> if they had just come to you, they could have removed it? >> quite easily. supervisor mirkarimi: the contention is that is why they did not inform anybody. supervisor maxwell: he said they could have gotten it easily. supervisor mirkarimi: i will call the remaining cards that i have. mike baker, joan wood, fancisco decosta -- francisco decosta. david torrenheim? those are the cards we have.

supervisor maxwell: you don't have to have a card. you can just come up if you like. >> there is no doubt that the church is a highly significant historic resource worthy of protection. there is no doubt that the unremitted removal of the stained-glass windows and other features have substantially diminished the integrity of the church. changes that would have been subject ceqa under -- under supervisor maxwell: ceqa -- under ceqa. they are only effective if enforced. we applaud supervisor mirkarimi for his leadership and for his longstanding efforts to safeguard this remarkable community resources. we strongly support a motion to determine the nature and extent

, and prescribe the appropriate remedy. >> i am proud of you, supervisor mirkarimi 4 upholding the interests of your district. it sounds to me as if it is -- the call to account here. it is sad it has gone so far before you took up the cause. i hope you'll make a firm statement showing the you have some or the same interests as supervisor mirkarimi. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: next speaker, please. >> i live in the neighborhood,

not real close, but within maybe 10 boxer so. i am really horrified by what i have learned about this. our understanding is that the community had an agreement, and that they thought the building was going to be preserved with historical artifacts intact. i'd pull this out of the file here, but you probably covered it already. there is a letter here. it says that the building is on the national registry. there is no question about whether or not this is an historical building and that the artifacts are historical. i agree that to say that these things like the stained-glass window are personal property,

that as an affront to what preservation is all about. had to do so in the dark of night, not telling the community, locking the person out that did this as a volunteer? that is so disrespectful of the community. i really thank supervisor mirkarimi for bringing this to the board's attention. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. i called a number of names, so just come up. >> my name is ace washington. i was bron and -- born and raised in the west addition. i did not come to speak on this item, and i did not know it was even -- i am sure they are

appreciative of bringing this to their attention. i am up here on a mission of community reform. i am here to tell the city to tell everybody in the west tradition that we have a group had is called the crc, community reform committee. we don't need no permission from the board of stupid- visors. anything that moves, you need to contact the crc. i'm the founder. i don't appreciate, and i know the community is unity. i hear you talking about african-americans. i don't see nobody representing up here. that has to stop.

anything that moves, brews, s hakes or makes, you let us know. i've been there 56 years. redevelopment is gone. the city council left us like a baby out the sidewalk. i am telling you going on record now, anything that moves in the western addition of gilmore, -- fillmore, we must be involved. my name is ace washington. [chime] supervisor mirkarimi: next speaker, please. >> linda chapman, i'm representing the senior houseing pl -- housing plan for st. john's methodist church. thank you, supervisor

mirkarimi, for doing this. we can show you the good, the bad, and the ugly. we have a similar situation going on right now with an abandoned church. in this case, the church still owns it. this is a social justice church. it appears that they are telling them -- it is a church, what are they going to do with the empty churches they can't use it? i would ask the planner, maybe it was dropped because of that state law. it is not owned by the church now. why don't people apply to have that landmark in the first

place. and apart from that, even the church that is still owned by the methodist church is still subject to supervisor maxwell: -- ceqa, so forth. they are trying to convince the church people that it isn't. one of the things that has happened is that some buildings have been preserved. it is possible to actually re- use these buildings, prevent demolition and not actually trashed the building. the same thing -- they have preserved a senior housing, i am sure you are aware. [chime] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors.

i don't reside in the fillmore, bubut i have been going to the church since 1976. i raised two children in that

i lived over there. my kids went to catholic schools. i did everything i could to be a part of the community, and is so hard that if somebody could get away with this -- they are supposed to allow us to a have the fiesta there every june, and they were going to keep everything. we were promised to the world, and we have nothing. i have been on this over 60 years, but i have never been so crushed over five years of my life. >> if i may ask you a question please. first of all, the idea of having a fiesta and continuing even a limited capacity of the church -- did that ever occur? >> no, because they were trying

to make it did jim, and there was going to be a removable floor, and they were going to have -- trying to make it a jig, and they were going to have removable floor. >> in the last few years, has anybody contacted you to let you know what their plans are going to be? >> no, i am on the parishioners board. they have my address. i give the paper from the catholic church every saturday, so i have never gotten anything as a parishioners. >> you were hoping to be able to continue a relationship with the church, that there would have been some communication? >> yes. >> nothing materialized? >> i never got anything. we got money for fund raisers.

they never came and had a meet and greet. i never received any document like that at all. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am the chair of the board at the catholic academy. i think there has been some huge misstatements and misunderstandings. i would like to respectfully state that we have not seen a copy of the revised motion, so there are a couple of points i want to make that may have been reflected in the revised motion, but we have not seen it. mr. firth has not been involved in the school for years. he has been out of the picture for a long time.

the other gentlemen passed away years ago. this school is run by a private board may go -- made up by a lot of folks from san francisco. any agreement our board is not aware of, and if someone has an agreement, i would love to see it. this church was the commission before the school bought it years ago. this church is an on reinforced masonry building. it is not a church and never was going to be a church. the catholic church has made that clear for the last two decades. this building was erroneously by the department. the papers called it a historic church. there was a letter written

august 12 saying it is not his story. it is eligible, but it is not historic. i do not know if the new resolution reflects that are not. as far as the removal of items, you need to understand that the authors have religious relics. they have certification -- that they have religious relics in the altars. they have certification from the vatican. derailing his furniture. we did not take out the windows. we took out the glass, and there is no requirement to get a permit to remove the glass, and the glass was not restored, and it gets back to the government's action to 735 about state law for a religious organization,

and what i really think is that there is a lot of misunderstanding and facts not being properly represented. supervisor maxwell: would you go back to the personal items? >> there are three altars. supervisor maxwell: how are they personal items? >> it is personal property. mr. sweeney and i have a long conversation about this when he showed up but the notice of violation, that these are items sitting on the floor of the church. they are not part of the building. they are not like a wall or window in a wall. they are religious items. there is this question of separation of church and state.

what is the city going to do with a marble top fed has a relic of a saint certified by the vatican -- marble top that has a relic of the same certified by the vatican. i do not think the city wants to touch that. >> you had that discussion with mr. sweeney? he still gave you a notice of violation. >> this is after the notice of violation. >> did he it -- did he detracted? >> we went through the items. on the windows he said he did not have an argument because it was a planning issue. he said the building exempts taking glass from a window. we did not remove the wood window frame. he said it may be of planning issue because it is a historic building. we get back to this law, which is the state law willie brown

past years ago. i understand the frustration of the community. i am a catholic. i understand the tension going about my school. i understand the frustration, but i think we need to deal with facts. a lot of this is the law. whether it is a piece of furniture or the historic nature of this building, and we would love to have the dialogue with the city attorney and whoever else, because that is where this really belongs. we apologize for the upset this has caused, but i would really like to get this conversation back on target. you need to understand the work the catholic academy is doing

for the kids in the western addition and the inner city of san francisco. >> you do have young people from the western addition? >> we do. they are here to address you in. i have grocers. they are 60% african-american, 20% hispanic. the families pay $15 to $100. we're using every penny we have to help these families educate their kids. we are not putting money into bricks and mortar. it is not happening. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon. i am the principal of the catholic academy. the comment i want to make is

that the planning department contacted the school. that did not happen to my knowledge. there was no contact between the planning department and the megan furth planning academy -- catholic academy. i just want to add to the comments but we are serving students from the western addition and bayview hunters point and that the vast majority of our students reside in the tenderloin, and i can submit their zip codes, socio-economic status to verify that we are a schools serving the community and steering exceedingly amazing job at that. the students we have at our academy are outperforming their

public-school appears in -- peers in reading and math. we have very little in terms of overhead in what we spend at our school. everything is invested in our children. we are here to talk about what goes on in the building and sacred heart, but i invite everyone here who has an interest in the future of sacred heart to see what came of the students who are attending the catholic academy and see for yourself the difference we are making in this community. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i did not come to speak on this issue, but it brought back memories, 67 years ago, when a

lot of my friends and family came from louisiana and texas. most of them were catholic, and to hear what has occurred here, it really was astonishing, so i am asking that you supervisors support the resolution before you. thank you very much. >> thank you. i have no other speaker cards if any one of wants to speak. otherwise, we will close public comment >> i have been to -- we will close public comment. >> i have been too sacred heart. i understand the object is to take over raw materials and assets and grab them. that is what the financial sector does common and i imagine -- sector does, and i

imagine the owner of this school did that precisely. as an apprentice, i understand my role in the capitalist economy . now we could replicate these materials and produce them again. it is no big deal if we have the plans. the catholics the sacred heart produces, we should produce this furniture, and there is no big deal. >> thank you. any other public comment? >> seeing none, i will close public comment. >> may i call on the planning department?

>> i want to correct a few items that were 7 and mention some that i neglected to say in my opening comments. the historic preservation commission has been loosely involved in this. we have a lot of public testimony, and make them aware of what they have done, so they are monitoring this, and they are concerned with what is going on corregidor are really want to emphasize the things said earlier. -- is going on. i really want to emphasize some things said earlier. despite the removal of interior features, the church still qualify for an individual landmark dearly for architectural features. it has to go through the process, but i want to put that on the record. the last thing i want to note is

there has been comments the church was not his story and was not listed on the national register of historic places. -- was not historic and was not listed on the national register of historic places. it is deemed eligible, which still means it is of historic resources. it is still a historic church and retains its architectural significance because of that, and despite what the procedures are, the church never was involved. it needed to come to the planning department under ceqa. that had to occur first. ceqa would allow the planning department to investigate and to look at the interior of that church as part of the historic research. we would have looked at that.