>> good evening, commissioners. i am here to speak in support kathlen dooley. luke o'brien summed up the best. not a larger scale business. as current president of the association, i have had the opportunity to work with her on several projects over the years. this includes her being the president of the merchants association. it greatly affect the small businesses and also having current legislation, it was the policy. first of all, also have been served on the committee for a

year-and-a-half, it helps coordinate -- i spent the weekend with her in december. i would like to speak about her attendance. her record is incredible. i need that as advocacy for somewhere in the city. i think it is super important. these are just a couple of examples, i could go on and on. she worked tirelessly where 95% of businesses are registered and considered to be a small business. with the current economic downturn, we have leadership in

the small business commission and represent the small businesses. i think balance is extremely important. the mom-and-pop, the small- business atmosphere. to have someone represent the small business commission. thank you very much. president o'brien: any further public comment? public comment is closed. >> as stated during the instruction phase, i will call each nominee in the order in which they were nominated. we will then take a rollcall vote of yes or no for that nominee. the first nominee to reach a total of four votes will be

elected vice president. if no nominee receives the required four votes, it will be up to the commission to hold another round of nominations where new or the same commissioners can be nominated. if the commission desires, a motion could be made to continue this item to february or a later date with a vote of four or more. i'd want to lay that out. kathleen dooley nominated by janet clyde. commissioner adams: no. commissioner clyde: yes. commissioner dooley: yes. president o'brien: no. commissioner o'connor: yes. commissioner riley: no. >> that's 3-3, it does not pass. on the motion for

o'commissionerb -- o'brien. [vote] >> that motion fails 3-3. >> let me state that the basis we will take comments shortly. -- let me state that the basisi -- -- >> we want to redo the votes, or if the commission wants to continue the matter, a motion

needs to be made. a motion needs to be made in terms of giving direction. a motion can be made to do a recall of the nominations and votes. or a motion can be made to extend the election for the vice presidents to the february meeting. commissioner riley: i would like to move to extend the election to february. commissioner adams: i'll second that. >> i will vote against that motion, i think that we should release him down and while we are sitting here, consider this very carefully. the basis of that, there is not a commissioner that sits here today that has spoken had more

meetings at city hall, has taken her time to go and advocate position by position. there is no more fear this person that stood in front of rules, stood in front of land use, stood in front of any other and really told it like it was an advocated for small business people. i will vote against the motion, thank you. president o'brien: i am not sure now if i am taking comments or a roll call. >> we can take commissioner comments and then do public comment and roll call. president o'brien: commissioner riley, you have spoken. commissioner clyde, hav ye yo u spoken? i will let everybody comment and

we will take roll call. commissioner o'connor: so these leadership positions on commissions are sometimes made too big a deal out of. however, they are significant, and people to like titles, people like to be seen in leadership. i was proud to be president of the commission. i appreciate the work and represented the commission while -- i don't sink it is that

big deal. that is the bubble gum statement. the other statement is, we are small business people. real small business people the open and close their doors of public payroll. pay all these things -- do all these things to open and run a business. that is what the commission was started, that is what it is all about. 98 of them will basically tell you that is correct and mortar, mom-and-pop type businesses. those are the people that by and large are the people that we serve, that we are supposed to serve.

once you open your doors, you can't afford to have an ideology. you have to keep paying bills, and i don't really understand why, you know, the mayor's office doesn't want to put any actual small business people on the commission, they have given up thinking about that. any type of comment or points i have made, it is not personal toward anybody on this commission. you know, the commission that i serve with, they are all great people. really great people.

but, you know, increasingly so, i'm more decreasingly involved because i have had my heart broken on this commission. i live and die by small businesses, it is what i do every day. i don't really care that much about this commission anymore because i don't think it does that much. i think it is sad. we have a commissioner that has been here for several years, and she would like a tidal. she is involved with small business, so the board appointed her. i don't think that it matters -- i am not a moderate or progressive. for anybody to label me a progressive, it is silly if they

looked at my voting record. if they label me a moderate, that is silly, too. my views change, i am interested in what makes sense. what is going to work for san francisco and the majority of san franciscans? for the majority of small businesses? today, we have just seen a mayor who is overwhelmingly, easily elected who could have appointed a moderate to fill the district 5 supervisor's seat. as it affected me personally, i give mayor lee credit for saying that i am not going into this throwing stones and pointing fingers. having said that, i will

probably be running for district 5 supervisor in ten months. this is where we are. we have appointed a very significant progressive today. a simple seat as vice president, for multiple years in a row. honestly, it has become, ". i don't know what is going on behind the scenes, news flash. room 200 doesn't care about this commission. if anything, they want us to be quiet and go away. our job is not to be quiet and go away, our job is to represent people that are struggling to go through the daily chores, making jobs, paying bills, hopefully

making some money. i was president two years and a rol - -in -- in a row. because nobody else wanted to do it. i was more than happy to share the ball and pass the ball off. one-year was enough, it was fun to be president, i didn't need to keep it going. after i dropped off as president, i would want to be vice president for something else, but somebody else wanted to do it. i think it is great that everybody gets their shot at having that title. silly or not silly, beneficial or not beneficial, that is my two cents. commissioner clyde: i am very concerned that the commission, it will be very easy because

of this -- can i say it? because this inability to share or -- what i don't understand is with strong communities or strong leadership, the obvious leadership roles in the committee structure. there is also significant time commitment. i am concerned that both the president and vice-president -- or the structure simply flip flops, the time challenge will be continued. many meetings have been canceled because both commissioners had no time because they both have very significant of full-time jobs and they are simply not available or maybe not interested, i don't know. there have been many missed meetings.

i really am confused why the strongest commission can't be formed. i don't believe this is the strongest team, and i believe it will be a much stronger team if we had an actual small business owner on the seat. you know, it is in the interests of the strongest commission, and frankly, it is easy enough for a majority of the board the marginalize this position. there are two very strong positions for dea lot of work de very few opportunities and very few places for the really small business people to make their voices heraard at city hall. this fear, this reluctance

doesn't make for the strongest commission. i find it troubling, frankly. it will be much, much easier to simply marginalize the commission and say, they are really out of touch. they will pick and choose where they come, and obviously commissioner dooley will continue her work on the commission. i don't think it makes the strongest structure. we fought very hard to have the strongest commissioners in these seats. commissioner brian would not be the best leader for permiting or policy, i think he would be an excellent leadership in those roles, but having someone with experience in both roles is

important, and it has to do with the credibility across the city. there are some big questions right now. commissioner dooley: i would like to say commissioner o'brien is doing a great job as president, but i fail to see the benefit of him continuing to run for another executive's position. again he can do a great job. he has done a great job, but it is time to share, and i fail to understand why this would even been brought up but this point, and i am very disappointed, and i am also disappointed in the other commissioners, who know and i am qualified to be vice- president, yet would choose to

just rotate the same to people in a position. i find that a deserving metered that disturbing in the same way janet side has mentioned -- i find that disturbing in the same way janet has mentioned. commissioner o'connor: i want to make a point that sometimes when this commission seems to matter a little bit more is when actual supervisors feel they want to take third time to come here and present new legislation, and it is key that commissioners have relationships with supervisors in order to ensure supervisors show of and to take this commission seriously, so this is

not a point of this or about. this is reality. this commission matters more when supervisors show oup, and i am open to additional comments about this point, but our would go so far as to say about in my opinion supervisor mirkarimi and supervisor daly actually came to this commission more than almost any other supervisor, particularly when i was president, because i have personal relationships with them there was a personal relationship which made them take the committee more seriously. now we have a standing supervisor who clearly takes the commission seriously. i will also add that i

initiated having david shoe added -- chiu added. janet clyde was on this commission because she was a simple small business person who showed up at meetings more than anyone else, and it was absolutely obvious she would be great on the commission. was she moderate, was she progress of hamas -- was she progressives? who cares. she is smart, and she hustles zeroth. they are just titles. share them. dooley has distinct

relationships with people on the board of supervisors who attend our meetings, present legislation in person, and not send a staff member who does not care, and and it matters to this commission, and i am sorry i did not want to talk about much tonight, but kathleen dooley has significant relationships on the board, and that does end up mastering to all of of spirited -- to all of us. >> any commissioner, seeing none, i would like to add a few things. recently i heard the senator point out at the speech of the mayor won the election despite

strength voting region -- despite ranked voting something like 60% to be mayor of san francisco. it is an overwhelming mandate for the mayor to run the city the way that he campaigned, and i believe people ceassee someono wants to be conclusive, someone who wants to break down barriers, someone who wants to get rid of labels, just one label for everybody curator and we are all center insistence, -- and we are all san francisc ans.

if he has to be stuck with the definition, he may say, i will to respectfully disagree, and our will continue towards working to a situation where sam francisco does not divide people by progressive nor conservative or anything in between. of a lot has been made of that division this evening, albeit with a personal interest because i've put my name forward. i would love to see the day we do not have this discussion in a more -- this discussion anymore and the board makes appointees and that the mayor's office will do like wirese and of the commissioners will elect their president or vice-president with

weighing in on what they think will bring to the table rather than anything about cross the boundary lines or anything like that. i am disappointed i could not appeal to the members who are appointees. i would love to be able to get a unanimous rate, but i am putting my name forward because i love doing this work. i have put more credits in then i have been given credit for. i could have arrived for many

more people to come here and testified. i did not. i elected to leave them alone. i just try to get my own support are offering what i offer on the table. a comment was made earlier. meetings were cancelled because i was too busy or because the president was too busy. there was of least one occasion in a subcommittee meetings i asked to be deferred to another time and date because a commitment came octet i could not make. i have never missed one ministeute of a full commission since i joined two and a half years ago i came in at or before

the meeting started and stayed until the very end to. no vacation has interrupted the record. no domestic emergency has interrupted a record, even though i have two children. i have been at every single meeting since i have been a commissioner. i know my fellow commissioners know i am committed to the job. it is not about to title. it is partially about title, but it is about a lot more than that, and the site, they have lost faith in the commission, i feel the opposite. i am excited about what the mayor is saying. his focus is to narrow the focus

of the commission and but to make it more powerful and. i want to be involved in that. i have also i asked a number of commission items to be brought to the table. i want to be part of the process was the vice-president to the president who i know will be more than capable of going along with the program, and that concludes my comments. commissioner o'connor: again, i would like to acknowledge i think commissioner o'brien has done a great job, and the discussion we are having is not an analysis of that.

there was the comment know about it is not this side of the aisle or that side of the aisle. is who is deserving, and i really wish life was about flat. however, it is not. i found about out but today. in this particular case, you are both deserving. this whole thing is silly, because i do not think he really cares about us, and i have heard in dozens of campaigns in this city from the left, the right,

how much they believe in small business. it is the big campaign, small and businesses, and babies, yet we are at the bottom of the totem pole in this building for a variety of reasons, but my point is the importance of small business goes out the window once the game starts, but it is not just about one simple thing. in this particular case, it is. you are both very qualified and deserving, and bolten board of pointing thing, right now what i pointing thing, right now what i do not understand is how th