here. again, if you could talk briefly about your background, your interest in serving our eastern neighborhoods cac. >> sure. good afternoon, supervisors. let me tell you a little bit about myself and by i am really interested in wanting to be part of the eastern neighborhood cac. my background or my roots in the city go way back from working class blue-collar -- my family of immigrants got their start in the ne mission, right across from the levi plant. my roots are in the mission. like many immigrant families, we later moved to the excelsior district where housing prices were a little bit more accessible, and we did plan our roots there. but ne mission, my brother grew up in jamestown. i'm telling you all this because a lot of this really

shapes my world view, shapes how i view and interact with my city, and i love my city. and also, as a homeowner, i look at it as a collective homeowner because i own my home with my brother, with michael w. sisters and my parents, which is probably the only way to do it in san francisco, but i think that gives me a unique perspective, and also, just my upbringing in the city and really recognizing the city-wide mosaic. i went to sacred heart. i hope that will not be used against me, supervisors. but i state because as a blue- collar and moderate income school, i was exposed to communities that i would not have been if i was stuck in my community, and just my upbringing in the excelsior district as a working-class community. similar to joel ramos, who we

just heard from, and i'm so glad you guys are recommending, my focus has been of the latino community, on youth, on seniors. basically, on community that have not been represented throughout urban planning. development issues. i cut my teeth on helping develop the eastern neighborhood plan. i spent 10 years on it. got my first gray hair is while doing it. had four kids. so i feel like using my role is preparing and organizing people to take part in these opportunities. but i feel it is my turn, and i feel that i owe that to my city and to the people, the thousands of people that participated in developing the eastern neighborhoods plan. specifically to the constituents i work with in the mission district. we spent thousands of hours, many, many nights, you know,

breaking down of urban planning. what is an urban planning? when you talk to the professionals, they say every day people cannot understand these concepts, but we live these concepts every day. we just need to put it in popular terms. i feel i bring that perspective and experience of breaking down of urban planning policies, design ideas to youth, elders, spanish speakers. i have launched many participatory-based research project in the northeast mission where we are going out there with neighborhood residents, attracting a lot by lot what is there, what are its impacts. we spent many years developing ideas on how we bring affordable housing resources into the neighborhood. because my role here is i do not want to limit on the past and what the mission was or continues to be.

as always, a working-class entry point for immigrant residents, from throughout, from ireland, from spain, from mexico. i do not necessarily want to limit on that, but i want to move forward and how we uphold the eastern neighborhoods, guide it, adapt it? because we have a diverse community now, and everybody is clamoring for the same thing. maybe you got a little bit of money. maybe you are looking at open space. maybe you are looking at some other amenities. families i work with, living in sro hotels, living in cramped apartments -- my role is to bring that voice forward because there is a lot of -- there could be potentially a lot of unity, once you get past all the stuff and all the drama, and i think we are all clamoring for the same thing, for the best neighborhood, for a healthy neighborhood, a sustainable neighborhood from here on

forward. supervisor kim: thank you. are there any questions for the applicant? supervisor elsbernd: you told us where you went to high school. we do good grade school? >> corpus christi. though, buccaneers -- go, buccaneers. supervisor kim: any other substantive questions for our -- [laughter] -- for our applicant today. thank you so much. very familiar with your work. thank you for the work you do as an applicant for our community. at this time, we will open up for public comment. please line up. two minutes please. >> madam chair, supervisors, good afternoon. i have attended more than my share of eastern neighborhood cac meetings.

it is unfortunate that there is not a lot of passion on that cac for their neighborhood plans because the community really had nothing to do with writing those plans. they show no ownership, so they are basically obsessed with deciding how to spend money, and it is money that they do not have. i have gotten to know oscar very well through the trailing years of the eastern neighborhoods process where we desperately try to put people back into the planning process, and i would like to wholeheartedly support his nomination to the eastern neighborhood cac, so that he can bring some passion to that group. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon. i have lived in san francisco

for 59 years. listening to mr. grande speak, i feel it is obvious he is well qualified. anyone who has done what he has done is obviously committed to the neighborhood. obviously, the reason why i'm speaking for him is i am also a graduate of sacred heart class of 1970, and i would also like to mention that since he graduated from corpus christi, corpus christi was also the site of that very important service for mr. oscar giminez, who also graduated with the class of 1970, and i think replacing one oscar with another is good for that neighborhood. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you so much for being here today and also for your willingness to serve on this committee. i know it has been a very

challenging committee to serve on. you have big shoes to fill. as you replace another great advocate. thank you so much for your willingness to serve. any other comments? we have a motion to move forward this item with a positive recommendation to the full board, and that is without objection. thank you. madam clerk, can you please call item five? that item five, hearing to consider appointing one member, a term ending march 31, 2013, to the commission on the aging advisory council. there is one seat and one applicant. supervisor kim: thank you. is ms. halee -- haile here? thank you. same format. if you could spend a couple of minutes telling us about your background and your interest on continuing to serve. thank you so much for your service already on multiple commissions for the city of san francisco. >> thank you.

in my experience, i worked in senior agencies in chinatown, self-help for the elderly, and the tenderloin. so i say my two main interests are aging and immigrants. i am on the immigrants rights commission. in aging, there seems to be no end of stuff to do this year. the advisory council is mandated by the older american debt, and we have certain things we have to do like review the area plan. we have to also select california's senior legislator -- legislature representatives from the city, but we find other things we need to do, too. currently, and chair of the legislative committee, and i have tried to avoid being chair of anything since i retired, not

wanting to conflict with anything else, but nobody would do this, and people kept saying, "well, why don't you?" there are so many legal issues affecting seniors this year that i feel it would be important to stay on. we are faced with reductions again in social security, and in ssi. there are 45,000 people in san francisco who are on sso, -- ssi, and it is about half people who are elderly and have people with disabilities. with the possibility of service is being reduced, and the state has already said they are going to eliminate adult day care, we feel we have an extra amount to do. i had been in sacramento twice this month, which i do not like to do. but one was on the domestic workers rights bill, and many

seniors need domestic workers to stay in their own homes. so that is important to them. and on the other economic security index that would give a more reasonable basis for the income needs of senior citizens. san francisco has already approved this, but it has been a problem to get the state to approve a so that we have some indicator beyond the poverty index, which is pretty outdated, especially if you live in san francisco. so i want to continue to work on those and a number of other things in the years coming up, and i always enjoy being on this advisory council because i can go around and visit agencies. now that i have become a senior, i go to senior meals program, and that is where i discovered how awful the muni fare increase was going to be for seniors.

everyone i went to said, "no, no, i do not do it again." so we helped organize the opposition that got the second fare increase for seniors ended. so you will have to keep watching all the time. supervisor kim: thank you so much. and you have already touched on some of these already, but what do you view as some of the pressing issues for the senior community in san francisco this year? >> i think the income and cuts that are going to force people back into isolation -- that is especially worrisome. you may say that you did not see any effect, and they do not die right away. but you may notice that people do not come out as much, and they did not do as much. we have a lot of elderly who live alone in san francisco. not everybody is with a family. only about 40% of the seniors in

the city are with a family. so i think we need to kind of have a way to deal with them to cushion some of that. supervisor kim: thank you. any questions from my colleagues? seeing none, thank you so much. we will now open up for public comment on this item. there is no public comment. public comment is now closed. thank you again so much for your continued service. and advocacy for our senior community here in san francisco. i know you serve on multiple committees and commissions and have dedicated your career to advocating for community, so i look forward to supporting you again for the commission on aging advisory council. thank you. so there is a motion to move forward this recommendation -- a move forward this item with positive recommendation to the

full board without opposition. thank you. can you please call item 6? >> item 6, hearing to consider appointing three members, terms ending october 21, 2014, to the local homeless coordinating board. there are three seats and three applicants. supervisor kim: thank you. i believe all three applicants are here today. could you please come up in the order you are listed on the agenda? first, we have windy phillips -- wendy phillips. same format. you could talk about your interest and experience. >> thank you. i work at a community-based organization in the mission, and i have been a member of the local homeless coordinating board for the last three and a half years. i am very interested in continuing my service on the board. i have been involved in homeless services, supportive housing services, as well as advocacy for folks who are homeless and low-income in san

francisco, for many years. about 10 years. started as a volunteer with the coalition on homelessness. i also was an intern with the local homeless coordinating board when i was in graduate school and then have done everything from doing tenant organizing in sro hotels to direct services, and i am very interested in continuing to be involved in the policy aspect of things. i feel that my last three years have helped me understand the federal picture and how the local interact with it and how important it is for us to continue to advocate for services for the most needy folks in our city, so i appreciate your time and consideration. supervisor kim: could we next have kim armbruster? >> good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. i am very eager to fill vacant

seat 3 on the homeless coordinating board. i have been a member of staff at the like and foundation for six years. my work is two fold. i am manager of the walk-in resource center, and that program encompasses shelter reservations and case management and reginald assistance. my program, the main scope is from homelessness on the streets into permanent housing. and like what-in center does the most shelter reservations and we are the only access point for shelter reservations in the tenderloin. we also do the most rental assistance for both avoid eviction and for getting people rehoused and then also the full span of case management. my second scope is in service systems integration. i think that both of these areas, i would like to bring that background service on the board. one thing i noticed as in a

large agency, individual programs tend to slip into sort of a silo mentality, and i noticed that that tends to happen from agency to agency, and they're at least needs to be better coordination in communication. i would hope that i could be an advocate for a better relationship between the people being served, the agency, and the government agencies involved in this. thank you. supervisor kim: [inaudible] of our applicant? i know you are a new applicant, so thank you for your interest in serving. next, we have erick brown. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have worked for catholic charities for well over 11 years, trying to direct services to a formerly homeless families. i started at treasure island.

when i first joined there, there were federal programs, which in all likelihood saw the worst of the worst. that was estimated by homelessness, substance abuse, mental health issues, alcoholism, and domestic violence, and from that grew the 66 families. we grew to 104 families. we are now 210 families who are provide direct services to along with my staff of 15. we do employment. we do reentry. we do family reunification. we do whatever is necessary to bring families back together to keep them off the streets and keep them house. there are difficulties in these changing economic times, it is difficult to keep families together, difficult to keep families house, difficult to provide services. my work on the local board has been to try to oversee and a

tribute to some changing values happening over the last 11 years. having been in this agency and provide services the same way for 11 years, i have seen it touched every year for the past 11 years. my experience brings a way of trying to rock and roll and trying to continue to support services that are out there, to make them better, enhance, and try to link, refer, and partner with other city departments to make sure that these services continue as long as is humanly possible. supervisor kim: thank you. quick question because you are the last speaker. i was curious because i am new to the board. i was wondering when your next report to the board of supervisors would be coming to the full board. >> that is a good question. here we are in may, and my term expired in october. from what i understand from our

chair, sometimes, it can be difficult to get on your schedule. not all the time, but sometimes. i am not speaking for everyone. we have more meetings that happen in smaller groups with some supervisors. recently in the last 10 days or so, we met with the mayor around some of these cuts and budget modifications. i expect that very shortly we will be able to get on your calendar and report back. i know our chair is very anxious to report back to what our findings are, what our thoughts might be, and how we can actually contribute and make it better. supervisor kim: thank you. are there any other questions for our applicants? thank you. at this time, we will open up for public comment. please come up. two minutes. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm speaking in opposition to

all three applicants. i will tell you why. as you know, the local homeless coordinating board every year get $20 million. the problem with the local homeless coordinating board is that it consists of hiring all stakeholders, all people who run cbo's. executive directors of catholic charities. the local homeless coordinating board composition should reflect the community and not just the viewpoint of the cbo's. therefore, i am opposing all three applicants today. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other public comment on this item? >> good afternoon. oscar grande. i m here to applaud and support

the 3 up with its. i think the level of perseverance, of stamina and determination to be able to do the work that they do, not anyone could do it. certainly not i. and especially i want to speak to wendy phillips, who i have worked with for over a decade now. i just see her commitment. i have experienced firsthand really shedding light to homeless issues, the issues that i am not familiar with. i know her as a constant alliance-builder, connecting the different stakeholders and community members, to really understand what are some of the root causes impacting homelessness and what are some strategies we could take to end

this epidemic. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other public comment on this item? >> yes, that is part of the problem. these systems are overrun by service providers. i think you have several other problems as well. i am submitting copies of this document. i think right now, what we have is just more of a tsunami of the local homeless coordinating board violating the san francisco sunshine ordered its. it is pretty close to them trying to lock out the homeless from attending these meetings. i am also having other problems like the attendance of the local homeless coordinating board. some of the members -- is

definitely teetering around less than 50%, so that is like one of maybe four or five of the local homeless coordinating board's violation of the san francisco sunshine ordinance. we have another problem where the 10-year council on ending homelessness is supposed to me. they have not met in probably over a year or two. so i am telling you that the local homeless coordinating board is negating some of their duties. i think the other problem i am having is back the local homeless coordinating board -- i fear that windy phillips and maybe one other member is going to try to obstruct the voice of the homeless and the other people that have problems with these shelter systems and other service providers.

i have no faith in these members to do their basic job function, let alone try to have any type of vision to make the shelter systems -- the system better. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other public comment on this item? >> good afternoon. i know you like to hear from the applicants themselves, but i did want to note that both eric and windy are in compliance -- erick and wendy are in compliance with attendance of meetings. i also want to mention, since i am the person who keeps all of the sign in sheets, that kim consistently and constantly has attended our meetings as a

member of the public and participate in a lot of our public comment and the discussions that the local homeless coordinating board holds at their local meetings. as a staff person, i look forward to working with all three people is their appointments will forward. supervisor kim: thank you. actually, while you're here, could you address what the prior public speaker talked about in terms of access to meetings? >> yes, all of our meetings are held in public buildings. our monthly meeting is held at 170 otis st., and i assume that the speaker is referring to one sunshine organs violation that was dealt with. supervisor kim: what do you mean? >> we were found -- i think against us, that one meeting was held at 77 otis st., which is the front entrance for the in- home support services, and there is a guard at the door, and mr. pitts was not let in the door right away. he was, though, in attendance at

the meeting, and i have documentation to prove that, but the meeting interest is the violation. supervisor kim: since then, you have done what to repair the situation? >> we no longer hold meetings there. that is a new development. we have not had a meeting there probably in a month and a half. supervisor kim: i appreciate that. thank you. and you can thank mr. pitts for his advocacy on that. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any further public comment at this time? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you again to all the applicants. homelessness again is another important issue, and i am very familiar with the organizations you represent and the amount of work you do for our community, and is very challenging and very tough work, so thank you for your willingness to serve on the board. there is a motion to move the three applicants for with positive recommendation to the full board. seeing no objection, so moved.

thank you. madam clerk, can you please call item 7? >> i did seven, hearing to consider appointing two members, terms ending december 31, 2011, to the western soma citizens planning task force. there are two seats and two applicants. supervisor kim: thank you. i believe neither applicant was able to make it to this meeting. one is a new appointment and what is a reappointment. at this time, i will open up for public comment if there are any. >> thank you again, supervisors. as chair of the western soma citizens task force, i should point out that neither of these is a reappointment. i know jim tatarazuk very well

for the last year or so. he is very interested and engaged in wanting to be on the task force. there are a stream of e-mails back and forth indicating that he barely read the plan and has his own opinions, and that is a good thing. mr. ferara i am not familiar with. he would be representing the area considered soma west on the other side of south van ness. we do not want any members that give us quorum problems, but on the other hand, the more citizen involvement, the better. so it is a tough call. if you do choose to forward these names for approval to the full board, i look forward to having more custodians of the plan on board, and an eager to see what their contributions would be.