hey, that's me. he's always been nice to me. i also serve on the milt club board because of his leadership. i'm also on the board of n.l.c. i nominated david waggoner for progressive leadership training and he served as an excellent fellow in that program. i think we should look at the resume versus resume aspect of this position. if you look at the resume, david waggoner fits the bill. but if you want to do a testimonial,ly do that too. he's a good friend of mine and i learned a lot about progressive politics from him. will he have that voice. he will look out for people who do not necessarily have any money. he will look out for people who have been marginalized and he will look out for people who are basically the clients of the police who are served by the police and arrested by them. he has their back and has their voice. so please take that into consideration. have i been working in social justice issues for eight, nine years. in fact, sean elsbernd did one,

a meeting a long time. he probably doesn't remember. a long time ago. thank you all. please consider voting for david waggoner. in fact, i would strongly encourage to you do so. bye, everybody. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. bard. any member of the public, please come up. two minutes. >> good afternoon. my name is richard nie and i'm a san francisco registered voter. i'm here to express my strong support for david waggoner to the police commission. i have personally observed david in his capacity as a attorney. i can give you detail on that if you wish. have i been highly impressed with the thoroughness, thoughtfulness and diligence with which david approaches his work as well as his deep compassion for his fellow citizens and his broad, deep stellar record of service to the community. moreover, mr. waggoner has personal traits that will serve

the commission and the city well. a readiness and ability to speak his mind, coupled with the evenness of temperament necessary for dealing with the kinds of controversy that often attend police-related matters. mr. waggoner would be an outstanding addition to the police commission. he strongly deserves your favorable consideration. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. nie. >> my name is glendon and i'm here to speak on behalf of david waggoner. i serve on the milk board as their outreach coordinator. whenever we need language, i turn to david be he serves up aggressive language. i turn to him for rights and people of color. whenever there's a question, i turn to david and he always has a fair answer and is willing to talk both sides, which i think is a great asset so i recommend

that you forward david waggoner. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. hyde. commissioner, thank you so much for being here. >> greeting, supervisors. i only came forward because you had indicated my name in advance but today i'm here in spirit. you all have my letters of who i'm supporting. i won't speak today on behalf of one candidate just because i deeply, deeply care about two who are highly qualified. but again, each and every one of you have my letter of whom i am supporting. supervisor kim: for the members of the public would you -- >> no. supervisor kim: that's fine. thank you. thank you, commissioner moffett. is there any other public at this time? seeing none, public comment is closed. i want to take a moment to thank all of the members of public who came out for this hearing. i know many of you are very busy and many of you dedicate a considerable amount of your time serving our city on a volunteer

basis and it's grite have so many people engaged around this very important appointment to our police commission, which is our oversight body for our police department. this time i open up for comments if there are any. supervisor? >> i would defer to members of the committee. thank you. and i want to also thank all of the candidates. i know it's always risky to put yourself out there and i -- whether someone is running for office or applying for appointment, i think we can all respect people's willingness to take that risk and to put yourself out there for public service, whatever our opinions may be on different issues. i am strongly supportive of julius turman for appointment to the police commission. have i snone julius for -- i

have known julius for almost 14 years. he's an absolute top notch not just lawyer but leader in our community. he talked about his work as a government lawyer and as a private lawyer but i don't know if anyone had mentioned his pro bono work. and particularly the pro bono work that i'm most familiar is when julius turman played a key leadership role around charges of racism at a bar in the castro district. a lot of us organized around to hold the owner of that bar accountable for some things that had happened. and is julius was there providing very strong leadership and pro bono counsel and played a key role in bringing resolution to that situation and trying to find any common ground that existed to resolve the situation. he's been an amazing leader in our community and democratic

party and african-american community and lbgf community, co-chairing organizations, rising to a leadership role in every organization gets involved in. he has won numerous awards for his leadership and community service. i can just say that i don't know anyone who has more integrity than julius turman. he's someone who i have worked with a lot and he never hesitates to tell me when i'm wrong. and -- or tell me when i need to settle down. i have to respect anyone that's willing to call you out for better or for worse and so he's incredibly independent person and he has my strong support. supervisor kim: thank you, supervisor wiener. is there any other comments? just i will speak really briefly. again, i want to thank all of the applicants for being here today. we really do have four very strong candidates, all that have experiences in different areas and really want to thank those

of you that applied. i know miss jackson and mr. waggoner, this is your third time applying for this seat. the dedication for wanting to serve our community around public safety issues is very important. and want to acknowledge all of your work in our community. mr. hogan, it's great to have someone who has experience, not just talk about the importance of training but actually has undergone it. i think that that voice is very important. unfortunately, we can only support one person to come out of this committee. i wish we had more seats. and the variety of experiences and perspective that you all bring are very, very important to the police commission. i hope they will at least engage all of you on public safety issues and issues with our sfpd. i have recently gotten to know julius turman and i just want to say, having talked to many folks that are supporting you, really impressed by both your leadership and experience and your knowledge around the work. we share many of the same principles and i know that you

will serve as a great commissioner. i have a longer relationship with mr. waggoner, who also equally has shown a lot of leadership around many of the issues that are important to me, sharing many of the same principles as myself. and also having done some work in district 6, i'm serving many of our residents in the tenderloin and also 6th street around hougs and also pharmacy issues. i want to thank you for your service for that and really being engaged with members of district six. today i will be supporting mr. waggoner for the police commission. it was a very difficult decision for me because i'm highly, highly impressed by all of the applicants that we have today. and look forward to working with you in the future. supervisors? >> i would like to echo supervisor kim in saying thank you to everyone. this is one of those commissions where we're blessed with the type of applicants that we get. mr. waggoner, mr. turman, mr. hogan and miss jackson, thank

you for coming out and speaking. it also seems to be one of those commissions, bigger ones here, where we have a lot of public comment. i appreciate everyone who came out to speak on behalf of the multiple candidates. i'm impressed with everyone's background. but among all of them, i think specifically the comments that came not only from the candidates but also the people that spoke in favor of them, for me i will be very proudly supporting mr. turman today and would be, you know, would certainly make a motion but if mr. -- supervisor elsbernd wants to speak first, i will be happy to support him. and really thank the other candidates. we're blessed with a lot of different candidates with mr. background. for me, mr. turman slt one that stands out far to me and i will be proudly supporting him. supervisor elsbernd: i'm pleased to move forward with the nomination plaintiff turman with recommendation. i think of the candidates he had

the broadest experience. i think he has the ability to serve the entire city, not particular parts of the city, particular groups within the city but all parts of the city and all factions within the city and has proven he has the ability to work with, you know, all sides on issues and i think in particular what really stood out was something i did not know about him coming into this meeting, the experience with the u.s. attorney's office and as a former prosecutor and working on committee that oversaw police relations and police behavior. without question, hands down, i think that is an experience and a qualification that is second to none. and will be a great benefit to him and to his hopefully new colleagues on the police commission. so with that, i'm more than happy to move forward with that nomination with recommendation. supervisor kim: thank you. we have a motion to move forward mr. julius turman to the police

commission with positive recommendation. i would like to take roll call again. this is not -- i continue to support mr. turman and i know he will be an excellent police commission. for now i will be supporting mr. waggoner for that seat. so roll call, please, on that item. >> on the motion supervisor elsbernd? >> aye. >> supervisor farrell? >> aye. >> supervisor kim? >> no. >> two ayes, one no. supervisor kim: motion moves forward. thank you to your time and thank you to all of the applicants again. madam clerk, can you please call item number snow shower >> item number four, hearing to consider appointing four members terms ending april 30, 2013, to the commission of animal control and welfare. there are four seats and seven applicants. supervisor kim: thank you. i believe all of the applicants are here today except for miss brooks and i would like to hear them in the order listed on the agenda. if you are here for the previous item, if you don't mind moving outside to continue your conversations.

thank you. so we have philip gerrie. thank you, mr. gerrie. so if you could speak briefly about your background and your interest on serving on this commission? and thank you so much for your service already on this commission. >> thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. i frankly wasn't sure if i wanted to continue on this commission for another two years. as you can see, i have decided to apply again and i want to share with you the reasons why. first, first off, i have gained a wealth of experience in the last four years serving on the commission.

to stop now would be zwroust throw away that experience, i couldn't do that. one way i have gained understanding on the issues is i have been commission secretary for over three years now for which i revisited and studied the discussion and arguments of every meeth when i have transcribed the minutes. in the past four years i met and have had good working relationships with people in diverse, and related groups, acc, spca, sierra club, et cetera. i have been interested in every issue that has been brought to our commission. i have also attended everybody meeting we had in the last four years. another volunteer position that has helped me as a commissioner is being a mediator for community boards for eight years as well as mediator as the office of citizen complaints. when i'm not doing commission business or mediations, i keep several beehives in san francisco. i keep busy tending my bees, collecting swarms around the city and harvesting honey.

i'm a 40-year resident of san francisco. i have been a homeowner for the past 30 years. i value this city and people and animals in it. i look forward to future civic involvement in ways that meet my abilities and to further contributing my experience and passion on this commission. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. gerrie. are there any questions? thank you. next we have mr. james yorck. for the record, i forgot to mention, miss brooks, who is not here, has also withdrawn her application. >> my name is james yorck. i want to thank you for considering me for the animal control commission. for more than 35 years i have lived and worked in san francisco. from 1978 to the end of 2000, i owned a small business on fool moore street -- fillmore street that i think uniquely qualifies

me for the expertise and per -- perspective that few others have regarding pets. i was a proprietor of handful of pet scores in san francisco that sold exclusively exotic birds. as a pet store owner, i experienced many different aspects of our great city. san francisco could call and complain to the health department about having birds in cages but simultaneously, in his column, herb king considered me and my store one of the ten best things in san francisco. last year when the issue of a pet ban surfaced, i was called into the fray by all of the customers, fellow shop owners and like-minded citizens and found myself rather fascinated with the whole thing. since i'm semiretired and don't work 60 hours a week, i have the time to attend all but one of the commission meetings, and i have given hours of consideration to various issues.

over the past year, the commission has not proposed anything of great use for the people and animals in san francisco. the exception is bans and restrictions. to pet sales to thoughts about banning the bluegrass festival in golden gate park because it supposedly interferes with the lives of ferrell cats. -- feral cats. one of the things that struck me the most about the present commission is they are much too agenda driven and not into fixing problems with practical solutions. to my knowledge, there's never been a commissioner who has really intimate knowledge of running a pet store. during the 2 -- during the 23 years of operating a store, i have learned to seek practical solutions and resolve problems. i first -- when i first had my store, one of my purposes was to

rehome pet birds. i considered it a duty to my customers. it has grown no a passion which i have continued to do to this day. i found another passion, and i hope i'm given the opportunity to interview. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. yorck. is there any questions for our applicant? seeing none, we will move on to pam hemphill. >> i'm pam hemphill. i've served on the animal control and welfare commission for four years, as have the other three commissioners who are also reapplying -- well, it's two now. as commissioners, we've had our differences on issues but we have worked well together. my particular interest has been wildlife, as these animals are numerous in san francisco, often

ignored or considered to be pests. agenda items that i have brought to the commission include the following, ongoing investigation of why an unusually high number of western gulls are dyeing at pier 94. public education on coexisting with coyotes. providing for wildlife trapped without food and water inside the three-mile fence put up around the outside land concert in golden gate park. lights out for birds program, including downtown building owners to turn off unnecessary lights to protect migrating birds and to save energy. contract guidelines for goat companies operating in san francisco to prevent wildlife being caught inside their electric fences for long periods of time. highlighted low lie release rates on nondog/noncat animals at a.c.c. dog and cats have a live release rate of around 87%.

for wildlife, it's below 50%. my ongoing goals, i would like to continue to work on the wildlife problems i have addressed. i would like to address wildlife feeding in san francisco with education. as it results in problematic operation and balances. i would like to work to make spay and neuter more affordable for dogs and cats, $250 is too much for neutering a male cat. behavioral hotline for problems with pets so they can keep their homes. i would like to continue my work with the commission. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you, dr. hemphill. next we have ulka agarwal. >> my name is ulka agarwal and i'm a psychiatrist practicing here in the bay area. i have been a longtime advocate for the welfare of animals, both as an arm chair activist and

volunteer. i recently reduced my professional workload so i could devote more of my time advocating for animals and it's in this light i'm applying for a position as commissioner. i'm very well educated on issues affecting animals locally and globally through active membership in numerous animal advocacy groups. following the commission's monthly meeting, volunteering with the sfpca where i led the ban to crush videos. i'm also active with physicians community for responsible medicine, where we promote plant-based diets and ethical research that affects animal medical testing. i've also taken a course examining in depth the connection between human and animal violence and researching effective psychotherapy modalities to convict those convicted of animal abuse. my eyes and ears are always open to the issues affecting even the smallest animals of our city. a day doesn't go by without my acknowledging how much of what we do, what we wear and what we

eat is connected to the suffering of animals. my unique ability as head psychiatrist as cal state east bay and counseling supervisor are particularly effective in animal welfare. i have extensive experience preparing presentations and lectures and compiling and conducting research. i have expertise in relating to people of all walks of life and helping them understand and adjust their thoughts, actions and behaviors. i feel this can directly be applied to specific animal campaigns where we ask the public to reconsider their sometimes longstanding beliefs and behaviors. in addition, i before a scientific and medical perspective to the health effects of issues affecting humans and animals such as factory farming and animal medical testing. i believe this perspective can be very powerful when educating and influencing both the community and important leaders who make decisions that affects animals. working for a state university, have i learned how to be creative and effective when faced with lack of funds, resources and bureaucracy, when advocating for those i am responsible for. i also have the fortune of

working with our university vice president, so i have had some experience developing and enforcing policies and procedures for our health center. some of the issues i'm very passionate about our banning the sale of live animals in san francisco and working towards putting together an abuse registry. that's because i am committed to issues that affect our animals locally but also i feel like these coishes affect a large number of animals even beyond our community. i feel like i will bring a fresh, culturally sensitive, scientific and creative perspective to the commission. and like forward to the opportunity to serve with other commissioners to promote the welfare of all animals in san francisco. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you, dr. agarwal f i could ask you a brief followup question. you said the ban of the sale of live animals. could you talk about that a little bit more? >> i did attend the meetings -- a couple meetings last fall when this issue was pretty hot. i actually didn't know the commission existed until then

and i was reading about it online and i came to meetings. i did speak as well in support of the ban. and i'm passionate about this issue -- and i believe the language was, live animals with the exception of fish. i believe fish should be included but i'm ok with that exception. i believe this is very related to puppy mill issues and irresponsible breeding. and somebody had spoke about recently identifying about 26,000 animals who were shipped for sale in pet stores and the terrible conditions in which these animals were suffering. so i feel like this issue affects the largest number of animals. and when we have so many healthy animal that's have been surrendered to out shelters, i feel that it's a real shame to be breeding britaining new animals for sale when we have these wonderful animals that are up for adoption. supervisor kim: included in

that, are you talking about livestock and people that purchase live animals for -- >> i'm talking more like pet stores. supervisor kim: great. thank you so much, dr. agarwal. any other questions? seeing none, next we have mr. ryan young. >> good afternoon. thank you for, first all, my name is ryan young. thank you for considering my application today for the animal control and welfare commission. i have no financial or political reason for applying to the commission. my sole interest is in my deep passion for animals and a desire to help them and to give back to the community. i lived in san francisco since 2001. i have a bachelor of arts in economics and a master of business in marketing and strategy. i have over 15 years of economic

and strategy consulting experience, mostly helping out large companies and organizations. so you may be asking what might that experience have to do with animals in san francisco? well, in the last four to five years, i have really learned a lot about the impacts that human activities are having on our planet. and a lot of which is caused by the types of companies that i was consulting to. so about three years ago i went to work for a sustainability consultant firm where i helped large companies minimize their impact on the planet. but this still left me feeling like -- that coy help out more locally and more specifically with animals. in recent years i volunteered as a dog walker at pets unlimited and realized i could have influence and leverage by working on policy issues. so in april i participated in the humane society's political action day in sacramento and

talked to a number of state legislators about animal issues that are before the legislate ure this year -- legislature this year. also in recent weeks have i been working with philip gerrie on the commission on an issue that's under consideration or potentially under consideration by the commission. i actually have a fax sheet -- copy of a fax sheet i put together and actually philip and i -- would you mind putting that in -- philip and i actually met with a lot of your staff yesterday to kind of make them aware of the issues. we met with oliva and viva and margo and adam and presented the fact sheet to them and kind of gave them hadse-up about the issue and the fact shield was something that i helped put together. and that's kind of an example of the type of analysis and organization i would bring to the commission and also a bias for action. because one of the things i

would really like to see the commission do is act more and act more quickly. so i think kind of given my business experience and experience on the corporate side pushing for change and action that i would really bring a lot to the commission. so at the end of the day, these positions are really about animal welfare. so one thing that i want to leave you with is that whether i'm selected or not, i hope that you all appoint commissioners that are concerned about the welfare of animals and not the welfare of humans at the expense of animals. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. young. are there any question? supervisor farrell? supervisor farrell: this proposal, fact sheet, can you tell me a little more about it and what it seeks to do and so forth? >> sure. it's actually not public yet. it's something that may be put forward at a future commission

meeting. basically the idea is last year that there's, as dr. agarwal mentioned, a hub hub about the pet sale ban in san francisco. i was kind of introduced to the commission at that time as well and i spoke to the commission and was surprised to see it had not really gotten anywhere about six or seven months later. kind of been tabled because a number of concerns were raised but i didn't see anything being addressed. so i went back to the commission a couple weeks ago and asked about the status of issue and afterwards met with philip and offered my support for trying to resurrect the idea of not selling live animals tunnelly promoting the adoption of animals ahead of creating and then selling for profit live animals in san francisco. it's my belief that a lot of san franciscans actually unknowingly contribute to the problem of

overpopulation and also kind of the mass breeders and inhumane conditions that these animals live in every time they make a purchase of an animal. sometimes on a whim they don't actually realize the implications of that. supervisor farrell: just so i understand, this proposal -- i appreciate your initiative on this. i think it's great. but it's to ensure that people who wanted to say buy a dog, that they can't buy one from a breeder, is that correct, in san francisco/ >> no. basically the way the proposal is laid out is basic will he encourage adoption first t could be through pet scores or through rescue organizations or shelters. but then any sort of kind of private breeder, like a small breeder, people would also be able to continue to be able to get animal that's way as well. what we're really going after is kind of the sources of animals where the