>> good afternoon. it is friday, january 7, 2011. we are in session to take an item from the -- tuesday meeting. >> alioto-pier, present. -- chu, present. chiu, present. daly, present. dufty, present. elsbernd, present. mar, present. maxwell, present.

mirkarimi, present. all members are present. >> can you join me in the pledge of of allegiance when yaho -- pf allegiance. >> can we go to the item on the board of supervisors as a whole? >> item one is the appointment of a successor mayor. in the event of a vacancy to the mayor's office. >> i have asked for us to

prepare a statement to discuss this item, we discussed this item at length on tuesday. >> on january 4, we -- elected to recess this item to today, january 7. to appoint a successor mayor in the event of a vacancy. under this section, code 67.151 a, was completed on -- january 4, 2011. mirkarimi, campos, daly, and elsbern selected agnos, hennessey, and former board chairman aaron pescen.

the role call was called in the order recieved, without yeilding -- yielding six votes. mirkarimi withdrew his nomination of agnos. and had asked if we had spoken to the other nominees. sheriff hennessey has accepted the nomination. the former chair of the committee has denied the nomination. currently we have lee and pescen. you may wish to ask if they are

willing to withdraw pescen. only electors willing to serve can be appointed. >> as the first order of business, i would like to talk about one of the potential nominees. >> i would withdraw my nomination, and i do believe that this gives me the opportunity to make a new nomination. to make them go through the new process so that i can have a new nomination. >> this would require a majority vote of the body. >> i would open these nominations, for a nominee that i have declined, for this nomination.

>> the supervisor has made a motion to reopen the nomination. seconded by supervisor mirkarimi. we will go down the roster. supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: i have no comment on this motion. >> would anybody like to speak? >> thank you. before speaking to the motion, i would like to talk about the breakdown of civility to each other, and i hope that we can proceed today, and work together with respect for one another, in the interest of moving the city forward. in a respectful and subtle way. i would like to ask to continue this moving forward, and i would

like all possible candidates to be thoroughly considered. thank you. >> and other any other members? -- and are there any other members? we will move on the motion of supervisor daly. >> chu, aye. chiu, no. elsbernd, no. mar, aye. maxwell, no. mirkarimi, aye. supervisor alioto-pier, no. avalos, no. campos, aye. five ayes, six no's. >> the motion to re-open nominations has failed.

if we could continue discussion on this -- item. those items would be edwin lee and michael hennessey. supervisor daly: i have a couple of questions, and i have one question. this is for the council. i have been thinking about this for some time. i have never formally asked this question. this is the county council on -- on august 27, 2010, we received a memorandum, from the office of the city. this is in regard to the a vice on matters concerning the mayor's race.

in that multiple-page memo, we outlined the conflict of interest, that he has regarding giving legal advice to this board of supervisors, when it comes to the election commission, and the ethics commission. with regards to the matters of the mayor's race. the subsequent memo, the city attorney, basically conflicted himself out in terms of giving this board of supervisors legal device on the matter with which we have been engaged for selecting a successor mayor, even though he has not been nominated at has not expressed interest. interest in being a choice or a candidate.

and i saw some newspaper articles where i mentioned -- where he was mentioned as a declared candidate, but he has not been mentioned, in the regular regularity. he has not been mentioned as a potential successor mayor. and thus, we have the standard council. i am wondering why the declared candidates, supervisor dufty -- he is actively running a campaign for the mayor of san francisco, i would like to know why he is not conflicted out of this. this situation -- the offices are different, but both of them are influencing or potentially would be influencing the outcome of the process and my question

is, given that he is running for mayor, why is he not taken out like the city attorney, huerrera is? >> your ass in a couple of different questions. -- you are asking a couple of different questions. he has different ethical obligations. given that the board of supervisors is his client. he withdrew as council on this issue. with respect to the supervisor who announced his candidacy, this is not for the mayor at this time. he has no conflict.

he would have a conflict and could no longer participate. >> the main difference is the city attorney and he has a client relationship. he has a relationship with the other city officials. providing advice to others on this issue. arguably a conflict. >> somehow, that advice could effect the outcome of the decision? or for what reason? >> why does he have a conflict of interest? >> if he is not a candidate for mayor -- only for the regular

elections. >> a myriad of questions arrives as we deliberate on the procedure. the advice could influence the decisions that the board makes now and in the future. perhaps there is no conflict. this is not enough that the attorney will not participate in a decision. >> not to put words in your mouth, instead of the city attorney. i could ask him directly. the concern about conflict or appearance of conflict has to do in how the engagement in the process could effect his candidacty for mayor -- candidacy for the mayor. >> this is his advice. it is in his service as the city

attorney. >> in regard -- regard to not being the city celection -- selection, to the extent he is not and supervisor dufty is not, and both are candidates, the city attorney was concerned about an appearance. on the memo, there is concer about the a -- concern about the appearance. this is in regard to the other election-related matters. he is concerned about some conflict with the advice he is giving us. somehow influencing the election. this has to do with the race for mayor in november. the same conflict and appearance

of conflict does not apply to dufty because his vote and engagement does not have the same impact. it seems it has a greater impact, to me. there is a real vote. it does not seem like a lesser impact. >> there are different ethical standards for lawyers -- lawyers. those rules will trump personal views he may have. it is adherence to those rules. we cannot ask him. he is not here. >> but the memo from august 25, it does not cite a different standard or code of ethics.

it -- seems to cite a conflict of interest. would this apply to the board of supervisors? >> i would assume that this is a conflict of interest rule. it does not apply to the board of supervisors, -- or members thereof. >> i think what is cited in the memo is the conflict of interest involving monetary gain. this would apply to -- member of -- members of the board of supervisors. i can quote it for you if you i can quote it for you if you want.