currently? >> the 13th we left clear for the discipline cases and the 20th is so far just quarterly reports. and the ambassador program. that dr. marshall referenced. >> great. thanks. all right. so dr. marshall? >> i'm curious, is there a reason we didn't have a community meeting the end of july? was it because we couldn't, is there something else scheduled for the last wednesday or we couldn't get a venue or didn't pick a site? i don't know why but -- >> i may or may not be here that day. >> lieutenant falvey will be on vacation. >> all right. >> is there any public comment regarding line items 3 a, b, c or d?

the commissioner report and scheduling of items? >> commissioners, good evening. for the record, my name is emil lawrence. i have a few brief comments. first of all, i think for the public at large, and i'm not sure who is supposed to handle this, but someone should direct some of you on how to use the microphone. based on the various levels of your speech, and whether you're addressing the public at large or whether you're addressing one another on a question because it's very difficult for us to follow you on exactly what you're doing. what you're discussing. in relation to whose question. for the last 30 minutes, i listen to most of you and it's very hard for me to determine what was going on here. whether someone was answering

the question, asking a question or just making gossip to one another based on some of the statistics that were read. it's very difficult to follow. this is a public forum, a public format. you're not here to talk to one another based on some relative means but to talk to the public and let them know exactly what you're doing. i'm a member of the public and i could not understand what you were doing. and i'm sitting in the front row. it's not clear also whether if you don't have the transcriber or the encryption whether this is being recorded properly, and for the notes that are taken on regular meetings, whether those are transcripts or basically audited versions of what was stated by various members of the public, it's not clear to me that what is taking place here. you have actual audios of speeches and statements, but

when you read the minutes, something else is there, sort of like a edited version of what was stated. i don't know if that's appropriate. based on the law. based on the sunshine ordinance. it should be exactly verbatim what was stated, nothing more, nothing less, and i don't see that in any of these transcripts. i think before any meeting starts, all of you should adjust your microphones, volume level, based on your voice so the public can understand you. we don't have that at present. based on my observations, there's only one or two of you that even know how to use a microphone. i don't think that's just. i don't think that's relative to your position here on the commission. i'm just one citizen or resident of this county making my comments. but i can't make appropriate

comments or questions if i can't understand what you're doing. and as of today, based on what was stated for the most part, i did not understand it. i thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker. >> if you go to the website, you go for the agenda on the meeting, you can get a verbatim transcription of what is said on this meeting, just read it or watch the film. i'm confused with the crime report, chief. captain garrity said publicly that shoplifting was up 53%. year to date in his district. of course he handles, as you know, union square, and that's where the rings are. i'm also not sure the exact number of homicides we've had this year. i'm thinking like 30. >> i believe it's 28. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> commissioner, ray hart, inspector san francisco open government. my comments are more general in the sense that the reports that are issued and provided to you and the members of the public during this session are for both your use as a commission but also for the members of the public to know what's going on and sometimes the reports have a lot of statistics which a member of the public would have no context in which to judge them. a recent discussion of the police commission had two members advocating setting goals with the new police chief. other members, one in particular, said it would not be a good idea because it would be micromanaging the department. simply agreeing on objectives is not micromanaging. telling the chief how to achieve those objectives would be. the real reason unspoken is so members of the public will not know the criteria used to evaluate the chief's performance and more critically will not be able to decide if

those criteria have been met by comparing objectives with outcomes. it not only protects the chief but also prevents the public from evaluating whether this commission is carrying out their responsibilities to oversee the operations of the sfpd. it also protects the police commission whose performance could be evaluated as to whether their selection of the chief was a good one. nothing personal, chief. you're new and i give you a fair shot. i'll be honest with you, i think over the last 30 years, the citizens of this city have done in the electoral process a much better job dealing with the sheriff's department and the elected sheriff than this commission has done with its selection of chiefs of police. look at the drug lab problem, the admissions to the court, the officers making false statements under oath, yada, yada, yada, it goes on and on and we had a succession of police chiefs that last a year

or two years and they're gone and we're starting all over from scratch. i think the elective process has served the city much better than this commission has served in choosing the chiefs of police. now, i'm submitting a 150-word statement and you can check with lieutenant falvey on the last sotf meeting, the library commission was found in violation and sent to the ethics commission for willful violation for failing to do what the law says which is including the 150-word statement? the -- 150-word statement in the minutes. and they also indicated they'd send a letter to the attorney's office -- you can shake your head, commissioner slaughter. it may not be important to you but it is to me and important for the citizens of this city. they're going to send a letter to the city attorney and advise him to stop telling -- telling citizens of the boards of commissions that attaching statements to the minutes is the same thing as putting them in. we all know it's not and to say

otherwise is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst. >> thank you. any further public comment? hearing none, public comment is now closed. please call line item number four. >> item number four is public comment on all matters pertaining to item six below, closed session for disciplinary statement and also a vote on whether to hold item six. >> this is a closed session matter according to the copely case and the bill of rights. they're disciplinary matters and done in closed session. any public comment regarding that? commissioners, ray hart, inspector san francisco open government. too many of the police commission function are conducted in secret. it spends a significant portion if not a majority of its time in closed session. it consistently votes to not disclose discussion or outcomes

of the closed sessions. the president of the commission made the rather spacious argument the public learns the outcomes when the indictments are issued by the district attorney. the problem, indictments are seldom issued. to protect the reputation of the department, offenders are allowed to retire or resign, settling the matter outside the sight of the public. whether politics plays a part is also hidden with some officers perhaps facing charges because they're out of favor, while others commit the same offenses and are not charged. why should members of the public have confidence that the secret hearings are being conducted in a fair way and to the overall betterment of the sfpd? basically your attitude is trust us. we won't tell you what we're doing, we won't tell you the outcomes, we won't do anything except hold it in secret and you just don't do this with these matters. i said it before, you have become nothing but adjudicating

body for the police department. with not have an adjudicating body and let them be separate and hear nothing and you deal with the public relationship of the police commission to the police department and the responsibilities you have to actually oversee the department and give members of the public some information to determine whether or not you're doing that. you select the chief in private. we don't know who you select. we don't know what you ask him about, we don't know what you question about, we don't know anything. you just selected him and we're stuck with what you get. as i said before, at least when we have an elected sheriff, the elected sheriff has come up to election every so often and defend his office. there have been too many things that have been going on that are going to turn out i think like fajita-gate. i'd like to know if anyone studied how many millions of dollars this city spent dealing with fajita-gate and the outcome and the turn over in the department and all the investigations and all the lawsuits.

i managed to find out that two of the officers in that case settled it out of court for $65,000 or $75,000 each. but i have yet to learn what the city ended up paying because of that fiasco and what is it going to cost with the -- all the cases that were dismissed because of the lab result, the lab problems, the cases where the officers entered without a warrant, the cases where officers knowing that they were in the wrong actually walked up to a camera and covered it. how much more obvious do you have to be when you're doing something and one of the things you do while doing it is cover up a camera that's taking a picture of it?president mazzuccr public comment? public comment concluded. >> item 5, to vote on whether to hold up and 6 in closed session. president

[return 23:18] >>it item 8 is the germans. any public comment? we are adjourned. good night.

>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park

is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing

botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden

petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this

room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at

the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.

>> very good. perfect timing, mayor. [applause] >> actually, mayor, i was just at the part of the program where i was going to introduce. it is now my pleasure to introduce the honorable edwin lee, the honorable mayor of the city and county of san francisco? would you mind saying a few words? >> well, thank you. i guess my timing is still ok. everybody, thank you for being here. housing, and especially affordable housing, is such a challenge these days. with the economy the way it is,

with the lack of help we get from the feds and the state, we have to do a lot on our own. that means we have to have the most creative people working in partnerships with the other committed creative people in our community. so it is no wonder you have got the union bank, wells fargo working together with the federal home loan bank. you've got the institute of aging working with bridge housing. you've got redevelopment working with the mayor's office. everybody, including our public health department, all putting their best synergies together to create this fantastic place that when i walked in, the first thing i asked was where was my unit. just to understand, you have 125 units, 25 of which are going to be targeted for our most frail, our most vulnerable, sitting on top of two floors of fantastic health

-social service-corrective type supportive things we did do for our seniors. it is that type of magic that says only in san francisco can we open this kind of thing up like this when everybody else is talking about layoffs, shutting down, not getting started, not even having good conversations at all. take a look around you. i think we are really lucky to be in a city to have people that are so committed to working together. and i wallace want to -- also want to thank everybody. the neighborhoods had the problem with the size and the mass, and we found a way to get through that, to find a common agreement, to look forward to a day like this to see the seniors as happy as they are to have an affordable unit here in the middle of our great city. this is a wonderful plushment, and i know there was a lot of sweat, a lot of tears behind

doing all of this, and i want to thank everybody involved in it. especially bridge. you are such a magnifique accept housing provider and developer. you have done wonderful things working alongside the institute. it is a marvelous combination. i am here to say thank you to everybody who participated in this. as i saw down it street, looking to see what we were going to do with the old coronet, how it was going to be here and how it was going to transform, and i am so glad so many people made this happen. for future generations of people who are going to come here, serviced here, live here in a comfortable way, and then to make sure this serves as yet another example as to why we fight for redevelopment, why we do things right in the city. to make sure fred maxwell, doug and others keep these examples

coming. in san francisco, we will continue doing it right. now they don't get paid up there until they start listening to people and getting the work done. thank you very much for this opportunity. [applause] >> mayor, thank you so much four thoughts, and he about couldn't agree with you more. i have to say that the redevelopment agency, the city and county of san francisco, have been stellar partners for bridge, and we appreciate your candid attitude. thank you very much, and i would like to give you this as an appreciation. >> well, thank you very much. [applause] >> another great partner of bridge's --

>> hello. welcome to "culturewire." we are here today with bay area artist jody chanel, and we are here to see the plaza where your piece has just been installed. >> i have been doing large-scale paintings in the galleries and museums, and the idea that in the future, i could do something that would hang out a little bit longer than the duration of the installation the kind of appeal to me. i quickly found out about the san francisco arts commission school and realized there was a

pre-qualified school you had to apply to, so i applied to the. >> how long did it take you to develop this work for the plaza? >> this was a fast track project. design development was about a month. >> let's look at the beautiful mural. i have never seen a mural created on asphalt. >> the heat of the asphalt, a new layer of asphalt. then, these wire rope templates that were fabricated for the line work get laid down and literally stamped into the asphalt, and then everything was hand-painted. >> maybe you could talk about some of the symbolism, maybe starting in the middle and working out. >> [inaudible]

the flower of industry. >> it is like a compass. there's an arrow pointing north. >> within the great bear consolation, there are two pointed stars here. they typically lead one to the northstar, otherwise known as polaris. so i thought it has a layer of theme. >> let's talk about some of the other elements in the peace. we are walking along, and there is a weather vane. there's a sweet little bird hanging on the side. what kind of bird is that? >> [inaudible] the smallest of the gulf species, and it lives around the bay area. >> you want to talk about the types of flour patterns that you send? >> [inaudible] around 1926 or so by the dahlia

society. >> what is this bird here? >> that is the california quail. >> coming up here, we had a little blustery theme. what is this area here? >> this is supposed to be the side view, the expense of the golden gate bridge. >> there it is. >> there are really beautiful elements of architecture still around, i would say that it gives that feeling over to the work. >> what are your hopes for it? >> that in a way it just becomes part of the area. i think it is starting to have that feeling. people utilize it. they sit and, and have their lunch and play on -- they sit and, and have their lunch and

play on that -- they sit and come and have their lunch and play on it. just for it to be part of the neighborhood. that is my hope. >> is such a beautiful addition to our public art in san francisco. thank you for joining us. it was nice to meet you. and thank you for telling us about your beautiful mural. thanks for watching "culturewire."