supervisor kim: good afternoon and welcome to rules committee. i will be chairing today's committee. we want to enologist at --

acknowledge the staff at sfgov tv. madame clerk, are there any announcements? >> the items recommended will go to the full board on tuesday, november 15 unless otherwise indicated. item number one, hearing to consider appointing to members for january 31, 2013 s january 31, 2014. supervisor kim: unhook all the applicants are here today. we will be asking the same for the four of you to talk about your background briefly and your interest in serving on this commission.

>> afternoon. thank you for your time and consideration. i am a san francisco native, my birthday is november 11, this friday. i have lived in annapolis, maryland. i was on staff at the u.s. naval academy where i attended school years ago. i enlisted in the navy after high school and have the opportunity to go to the naval academy. my military service and to my staff has been very useful to me throughout my career. now i will be 52. my wife and i returned to san francisco this last year and are excited to be back in the community. we made the decision that we wanted to get more active in our community and do things that we

thought were, leverage the benefits and experiences we have had in our life to the benefit of those that have not necessarily been so privileged. i have seen that with the veterans that i know. others have struggled for various reasons with the simulation -- but with assimilation back to the world. health care and substance abuse issues, lots of things like that. i learned of this commission and immediately turned in my application. i am excited about the opportunity, i think this is an interesting group. i appreciate that the board of supervisors and the mayor take this kind of council from folks that come from different perspectives. supervisor kim: think you for your interest and also in getting real engaged with the

san francisco community. what are some of your interests? have you attended any of the meetings? >> i have not. as i looked through their web page, i have primary interests. i am a development officer at st. mary's college. we have 31 veterans, and many did check on that today. one is career services. i have seen a lot of my friends come out and have trouble leveraging their experiences and communicating the value of their experiences to the civilian world. and the second is education. i had the benefit of the gi bill that allowed me to get my master's degree, but i have seen others struggle with that. it is not as simple as having those benefits available.

how do you take advantage of that, how do you deal with family life and work life and to stay committed to that cause? there were hot to specific areas where i have not been helped. >> you said you applied a year ago? >> as soon as i came back. >> there was an open seat a year ago, but this is the first contact have had with the city. supervisor kim: jordan towers. >> good afternoon, a supervisor. i am in the iraq war veteran. i served in the united states marine corps in the infantry. i returned home and moved to the bay area, started a veterans group at the city college of san francisco and became the most successful program in the country.

the only school the offers a program just for veterans. it was the first school in the country to bring in on campus to serve veterans. we also built a state of the arctic veteran center specifically for the needs of returning veterans. i have always been a part of veterans activities within the city. i am also the founder of returning veterans in san francisco, a couple months ago the board of supervisors unanimously passed support of a job fair, that is strong. i was contacted to get this started and i contacted the other vets that i know, high net worked with veterans from all of the campuses in the bay area.

and we were able to make that happen. i am also a veteran advocate of the organization that has been helping out veterans since 1974. i work on the institute for veteran policy and under the resources and development, there i have been for the ring emission and helping out veterans. i hope to do that here. one question, have you attended any previous meetings? i have been active in the community and i have attended meetings and lent a helping hand wherever possible. >supervisor kim: what are your interests have your wanting to pursue as commissioner?

>> one way that my generation communicates is on line. i would like to establish whether three. shows that we can establish about reached of veterans. second is jobs, jobs, jobs. veterans are desperately struggling and i believe in setting up a data base within the city to give veterans employed. supervisor kim: thank you. next is dorothy guy. jou tseng cannot make it today. >> i move in to sentences go for -- and i moved to san francisco in june of 2007. in 2003, i went to iraq as military police to serve in baghdad. i would love to be part of this

commission, because i feel with the amount of debt coming back -- vets coming back, there are no issues that are unique, like unemployment and women's care. we have a good understanding of how to treat these issues. supervisor kim: same question that i asked to the other applicants, did you attend meetings and you already mentioned that you want to outreach to the current generation of veterans. are there specific goals he would like to accomplish as commissioner? >> i have not attended the meetings as of yet, but i am very interested. my goal, this war was the first time that women was owere ont the front lines. i want them not only to survive but overcome everything we have

gone through. supervisor kim: i am seeing no further questions, thank you for your time. at this time, i will be opening up for public comment. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have a commissioner on the veterans affairs commission serving as secretary. i am here today to advocate for two of the candidates. jordan tower who has come to several of our commission meetings and advocated strongly in support of some of the issues that we have advocated to the city government. particularly, i am speaking about the issue of veterans

courts, which are successful in some parts of the state, and we wrote a resolution and passed it on to the mayor and the board of supervisors in support of legislation currently before the state legislature to establish some veterans courts. i believe the governor vetoed that on the basis of fiscal problems, but we would like to see it pushed and reestablished. jordan has been familiar with the plight of some of the veterans in san francisco, and some of them have gotten in trouble and have been working with the sheriff's department to try to even in formally established some set aside understanding for the special problems that some of the veterans -- younger veterans, particularly -- are going through. not a free ticket for them, but a hand up. he has led his experience and expertise, even as a guest, before the commission and in

several previous meetings. i know he will be a jewel in addition to the commission if he is seated. thank you. i look forward to working with him. supervisor kim: did i miss here? i thought you said you would be speaking on behalf of two? >> if i could take another moment. the other one would be the young lady that just spoke. we have had a lot of trouble and gone to a lot of work recruiting female veterans for this commission. we absolutely agree with the push that was made by the board of supervisors about two years ago to add specific seats to the commission designated for female veterans and also at the same time, while it was not written into the mandate, it was completely understood that what we were looking for was more representation -- what you were looking for was more representation by the post-9/11

veterans, the younger veterans because those are the ones whose problems we will be dealing with in great numbers in san francisco over the next few years. i just got an e-mail a little while ago yesterday from someone who essentially withdrew her name from nomination -- supervisor kim: she has not withdrawn. she just got a job. it was her first day. >> right. she just got a job, but she did say she would advocate in favor of ms. guy herself because she believes she will be going back east to graduate school and would not have much time to serve if appointed, she said please pass on that she would be happy to see ms. guy seated on the commission as well. those are the two candidates are would support. supervisor kim: another quick follow-up -- out of the 17 members, how many represent

younger veterans? >> now? i believe -- supervisor kim: roth is fine. >> about five. supervisor kim: how many do you have serving? >> 3, currently. supervisor kim: which is our minimum. >> out of 17 members, yes. supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon. this is my second time having the pleasure of speaking this year. i would be happy to speak on behalf of two candidates as well. jordan towers has attended meetings in the past and has been proactive, speaking on behalf of veterans. we are a country at war and

these appointments may be the most important you do because very soon, our veterans are going to be homeless. the veterans living across the street are about to go through a seismic retrofit, and to this date, we do not have a place for our veterans to go. they are talking about the presidio, but we need people who are in contact with young veterans today, and i believe jordan will be positive and instrumental in that. i would also like to speak on behalf of dorothy guy. forgive me. i hate the term quarters, but troy, we have no representation from a female african-american on the commission -- but currently, we have no representation from a female african-american on the commission. the commission needs to diversify. it has been a good old boy network for many, many, many years. thanks to your influence -- i commend you on that -- it has gotten better today. supervisor kim: thank you.

is there any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed. colleagues, you do have four applicants. i believe we have talked to jou. i do not believe she has withdrawn her application, but we did hear from her. any thoughts? i think we can move forward at least c 12. we can do both? ok. supervisor elsbernd. supervisor elsbernd: seat 12 is the easy one. dorothy, i wish you well. i hope you will do a great job. we're stuck having to choose between two great candidates in mr. reid's and mr. towers.

i very much appreciate the way mr. reeds presented in it. i see on your application -- you did not mention this -- your professional work at san francisco state. thank you for all the work you do there. that said, i think we really have made a focus of bringing in some post-9/11 of debts to that commission, and i think hearing about mr. towers' involvement already, respectfully, i think he is the choice today -- we really have made a focus of bringing in some post-9/11 that's -- vets. >> i would be happy to support that. i think everyone here knew this was coming today, but this was one of those things where we cannot do enough for our veterans, and to have veterans come forward and apply for commissions like this, it is a horrible decision we have to

make, but this is also a commission with these seats come up, and i am start your experience was turning in an application a year ago and just hearing about it. maybe it was not your specific seat that came up but others did, so we would love to consider you for wendy's, again. to all the applicants and those serving on the veterans affairs commissions, thank you for all you guys do it again. i do not think we can do enough to support you. thank you so much. i am happy to support that recommendation. supervisor kim: i find the veteran affairs commission is always one of the most difficult to assign seats for because we have so many dedicated and passion of veterans that want to come back and serve the community. i think all of us admire that. thank you all for applying. i think it is great that we will have two young veterans representing on the commission as well. i support that recommendation. i am also more than happy to forward mr. reeds application to

the mayor as well. i am not sure which you applied for, but we will definitely keep your resume in the look for other seats. and thank you to the commissioners that came as well to speak. it is great to see both of you. we have a motion to move forward jordan towers for c 10 and -- for seat 10 and dorothy guy for seat 12. it we can do that without opposition. thank you. madam clerk, can you please call item two? >> hearing to consider appointing one member, a term ending november 19, 2012, to the bicycle advisory committee. there is one seat and one applicant. supervisor kim: thank you. mr. brant could not attend today's meeting, so at this time, we will open up for public comment on this item. is there any public comment on item two?

seeing none, public comment is now closed. marc brandt is a direct appointment by our district three supervisor and president chiu. motion? the motion. supervisor kim: we have a motion to move forward mr. brandt was positive recommendation. can you call item 3? >> item 3, hearing to consider appointing three members, terms ending december 31, 2012, to the medical cannabis task force. there are three seats and five applicants. supervisor kim: the committee has done a number of letters this week asking us to continue this item. we did speak with supervisor campos' office because his

office did start the medical campus task force. i know some applicants are still here and you are of course welcome to speak, but we will not be deciding the issue today. i do see some of the candidates here because i have met with you prior as well. if you would like to speak, please come up. i think it is kind of in the same order. i see marguis here. carol blecker has withdrawn her application. the other applicants are here, your welcome to speak as well. and if he could spend a couple of minutes talking about your background and your experience and interest in serving on the task force. thank you. >> hello. i am a patient advocate on the medical cannabis task force patient advocacy committee.

i am also a patient advocate with black and brown just cannabis policy. i attended job corps in 2006, got my education from job corps, graduated, became homeless, used medical -- or used cannabis recreational it on the streets while being homeless and found that it helped me very much, so i made a determination to get my cannabis card. doing that, i made a goal to learn as much as i could about cannabis and cannabis issues and health-related dynamics related to cannabis. when i got into the movement, it swept me up, and it has not dropped me yet, and i doubt it will. i am very passionate about helping cannabis patients and

san franciscans in general. i enjoy what i do. i do not take it for granted at all. i need a lot of people every day that ask me questions about medical cannabis, and i am proud to give them what they need to know, recommendations and guidelines and safe practices and things like that, so thank you for considering my application. supervisor kim: thank you for speaking to it. you do not have to come back to the next rules committee, but i just wanted to ask you what you hope to accomplish in the following year. >> the following year in the task force, i would like to bring diversity. right now, a majority of the task force is primarily white. i am an african-american. i am also quarter regan -- puerto