the board of supervisors to do anything i do not have that power. just to be very clear about the issues of the sunshine -- the previous sunshine ordinance task force composition, some of my colleagues have mentioned the brazen violation of the city charter when that task force decided to exempt itself from the charter's quorum requirement. you have to have a majority of all members vote for something to pass it, not just those present. this board has to act with six supervisors, his even if we have only six members present. the sunshine ordinance task force, because of attendance issues, exempted itself from that charter requirement. the task force, according to the reports prepared by the board's legislative and budget analyst determined that city employees had to go to the task force to have their case adjudicated 1.9

times. the task force was not handling its agenda property and as a result city employees would have to go multiple times, and that is a waste of taxpayer money, and it generates unneeded overtime. there were reference made to sunshine ordinance complaints against members of this board, it is true that since i've been on, there have been sunshine complaints filed against almost every member of the board. that's part of life in san francisco. people file complaints and they get adjudicated. sunshine ordinance task force has sometimes exonerated members of this board, has sometimes found against us. and that is what it is. and that had nothing to do with any of the actions of this board, as far as i can tell. i also just want to indicate that my position has not changed with respect to mr. wolfe. on a personal level, i like mr. wolfe. i have nothing against him. i worked closely with him when we were fighting against the dog

restrictions proposed by the golden gate national recreation area and we i think did very well in that fight. so this is not personal. this is about the task force. and i understand there's a disagreement, and i completely respect that. but i did want to provide my perspective. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you, supervisor wiener. we have a motion on the floor and i'd like to take roll call on that motion. >> linda wong: on the motion, supervisor farrell, no. supervisor campos, aye. supervisor kim, aye. >> linda wong: twoize, one no. >> chair kim: thank you. motion passes. madam clerk, can you please call item 4. >> linda wong: hearing to consider appointing 15 members in -- terms to the lgbt seniors task force. there are 15 seats and 44 applicants. >> chair kim: thank you. and ms. wong, could you list the members that have e-mailed either the clerk or our office that have withdrawn their application. i've got at least two e-mails.

i'm not sure if there are more. >> linda wong: yes. we received two from applicants wishing to withdraw and they are cynthia davis and richard appl appleby. >> chair kim: given the great number of applicants that we have, which is unusual, that is because it is a completely new task force that is being created and that legislation was authored by supervisor wiener who is here today, and i believe coauthored by supervisor campos and supervisor olague, i think that is the reason why we have such a great number but i will be limiting the presentation to two minutes. we of course appreciate brevity. all members of the rules committee did get your applications and any additional information that you have included, whether it's your résume or personal essays and we did read through all of them. if you can touch on other aspects of your qualifications when you do present we would appreciate that, and why you would like to serve and what some of your priorities may be.

there's not a reason to regurgitate what you've already said. supervisor wiener. >> supervisor wiener: i want to acknowledge supervisor campos and supervisor olague were a three-way team on that legislation. when you look back at the hearing that we held on lgbt senior issues, a hearing that was overflowing. i think we had to use the overflow room, and then you look at the incredible response, in terms of more than 40 applicants for this committee. and in fact we amended the legislation to increase it from 10 to 15, to at least lessen the pain a little bit in terms of the hard choices. but it shows how important this issue is, and really how far behind we are in addressing the challenges of an aging lgbt community, some of which -- some of the challenges being the same as all seniors, some being very unique, for example aging with

hiv, being more likely to age without adult children to help care for you, some of the challenges around senior facilities and the lack of training, et cetera. so i think the response we've gotten really proves that we need to be doing this. and so this is just terrific. and of course it also makes it hard because this committee will ultimately recommend 15 people and the board will make a decision. and just looking at the list, i think there were 20 or 25 people that i was excited about the prospect of them serving on the committee but of course it's limited to 15. i do believe that whoever is appointed, there will be an advisory committee, and people will be able to participate, even if you're not officially on the committee. so i want to encourage people not to be offended or upset if you're not appointed because the committee and the board will have to make very, very difficult choices. but i am very deeply grateful to

everyone who has participated in the process from the hearing to the legislation, to applying. so thank you. >> chair kim: thank you. supervisor campos. >> co-chair campos: thank you, madam chair. i want to add to what supervisor wiener said or reiterate what he noted. we have only 15 seats and 44 applicants. and to be honest, i think each and every one of the applicants i think would be a great addition to this task force and would do a great job. but we only have 15 seats so i hope that those of you who, for whatever reason, you're not selected, that you will still be able to be involved, because the fact that you're not an official member of the task force doesn't mean that you cannot be a part of the process, and you cannot add your talents and your expertise. so i hope that whatever happens today that whoever doesn't get on, will continue to be involved because i think that, you know, at the end of the day this is a

task force for the lgbt community and the city. this belongs to all of us. how effective this task force, how successful the work is at the end of the day is dependent on how involved each and every one of you and each of us is. let's make it successful by being as involved as we can irrespective of the role we play. >> chair kim: thank you. having read the résumes and applications i'm certain everyone will remain engaged. i was impressed by the level of service that the applicants are engaged in the the community and it will be a difficult job. arin par nes and next is alex kiny. >> hello, supervisors. i'm aaron par nes.

i live in it -- housing for lgbt seniors. i've been a teacher, a pta propriety at -- high school years ago. while i was a teacher, i was also consulting and working with students and their parents. most of the parents who were doctors from the san francisco medical center. obviously this is an important issue for us. there's all kinds of issues that supervisor wiener just mentioned. i would just pick one, and that's the statistic -- some statistic that jumps out at you about the isolation of aging seniors. and it's a really terrible isolation, as you get older and older, you become less and less part of the community, seemingly. it doesn't have to be that way. so i would like to see programs

that are designed, structures that are designed, where we commit to having structures that allow and empower people to be engaged in the community. seniors are synonymous with wisdom. they should make a difference in the community. our community, with all seniors, not just gay seniors, our society tends to view seniors aging in a light that doesn't shed good light on them. and we need to change that in society. so i'm committed to having seniors be part of the community, and having a sense of self. we need programs that provide a sense of self. maybe provide's the wrong word, but empower seniors to come into their own as opposed to being isolated in the community. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you. also thank you for your work at william penn as well.

>> yes. >> chair kim: we have alex kiny, and then after alex we have alyssa nickell. >> good afternoon. i'm alex kinny, i'm pleased to be here for what this is about. and although -- it's from my background as an arts educator and doing things with art. i'm having my senior moment trying to remember the name of the documentary that won the academy award about the group of aging jewish population in southern california. but i worked in that center and i helped that come to be. something actually that supervisor wiener said earlier about the aging and illness strikes me personally. and i just want to mention that. you know, i grew up in texas. i lived all of my first -- i lived here for 20 years, and

then had much of my career in new york. and i suddenly had the need to have a great deal of surgery done, and of course they're very good surgeons in texas and my family tried their best to confront taking care of me. but i found, on a firsthand basis, his this difficulty of people having to deal with someone whom they are close, all of their political and personal feelings are so different. and it was extremely painful to have to try to go through that, and work at that time. so i'm very sensitive to that. i've done a lot of work with art in public places, and i don't just mean paintings on walls and sharing. is that a cue? i'm not sure. all right. i'll wrap up. i'll try to follow. but art experiences, so i'm really vitally interested in bringing interaction between seniors and art and expression

and creativity. i've done work in that area. thank you very much. my pleasure to be here. >> thank you, mr. kinny. next, we have dr. alyssa nickell, and then we have ashley mccumber. >> thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself more fully to you. my name is alyssa nickell and i currently serve as director of research and program development for shanti project in san francisco. one is assessing needs and creating measurables. over the past two months i've been working with department of health and human services in rural minnesota in developing a tool that takes into account that in order to bring much-needed hiv-aids support services into the community we must acknowledge the discrimination hidden within the

social and political structures as well as personal experiences of stigma, shame and isolation. assessing needs is not as simple as conducting a survey. it requires both qualitive and quawntive measures in non-threatening judgmental ways. in 2010 survey conducted by joint work group on hiv and aging, 28% of participants said they would not be comfortable receiving services from adult agings services for fear of hiv phobia and other reasons. creating measurables, my doctorial research is between spiritually and sensuality. is that measurable? measurements are connected to funding, funding is connected to sustainability. if we want these to be collaborative in programming we must give them tools to measure the effectiveness in ways that are valued by local and

government as well as private foundations. developing measurement tools and reportable data that reflect the complex issues that seniors face and ensuring that these can be functionally linked across agencies will be one of our most important tasks. i'm not only qualified but excited to assist you in this task among others. thank you. >> thank you, doctor. next, we have ashley mccumber and carl stokes. >> executive director of meals a wheels of san francisco and want to thank you for your work to establish this task force and for viewing all these amazing applicants. it's exciting to see so many interested. meals on wheels is the largest provider of nutrition for homebound seniors in it san francisco serving almost 2900 people a year now.

we're immersed to know what it is to be invisible and frail and having a tough time living in the city. i've been executive director for for five years. prior to that i helped bring two lgbt senior organizations into that the fold, one called stone wall communities and one was the boston prime time, and stone wall is much similar to open house but not as substantial and not as successful. our clients were disproportionately for and disproportionate will isolated but we don't know as much about them as we should. i wanted to be a part of a group that helped in partnership with adult aging to commission a study to give us information we need to inform the task force and other work in the city and meals on wheels is the fiscal agent for that.

beyond the personal side, this is personal for me. i'm officially in the aarp mailings now and getting bamgerred by them and thinking about the fact it will be very hard to age and live in the city in 25 years. part of solution. three other things really stick out to me. i want to help mainstream providers become more competent in serving this population and i think it's important that ceo organizations step up to do that. our front line workforce more competently. i have 35 people -- these seniors every day and i think we can do a better job. lastly i would say 60% of seniors in san francisco are currently not served by dos and we need to address them as well. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you. also thank you for all the work that meals on wheels does in the city. next, i have carl stokes and connell persico.

is mr. stokes here? colonel, and then daniel redman. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm a retired educator, having served 32 years, working as both an administrator and professor in higher education setting. one of the things that i learned through that process was the insidious nature of institutional -- exor simple and what it takes to overcome that. i worked in areas of non-discrimination, how do you get domestic partnership established, to how to create necessary funding to help students who have an interest in this area can come, be enrolled, and complete those programs. so the way i would best describe what i would bring to the task force is four key terms. i'm gay. i'm a senior. if there's tasks to be done, i'll work on them. and i will be a force to be

reckoned with. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you. also, we got your very lengthy cv. so appreciate your brevity in your presentation. we have daniel redman and then we have emerald o'leary. >> thank you to the chair and the rules committee for this opportunity to speak and thank you to supervisors wiener, campos, and olague for sponsoring this important legislation. for the last two years i headed up del mar memorial initiative at the national center for lesbian rights. in october i will begin as an associate focusing on elder law. my cases included working with discrimination in long-term tear facilities and disrespect of life planning documents. i've worked with broad coalition on federal hospitals visitation

regulations, spousal -- and finding ways to mandate cultural training in long-term care facilities. i've put a strong emphasis in helping seniors to know their rights and prioritizing issues of lgbt, and transgender seniors. in 2011 i worked with planning for elders open house and transgender law center to create navigating the system specifically covering rights and benefits issues of california lgbt elders. in july i worked with the human rights commission affecting lgbt seniors. these must take center stage of the task force. i am particularly interested in investigating ways to expand access to life planning documents to low income lgbt seniors. this is a vital issue for our community. two-thirds of mid-life lgbt

community identify family as -- the law center said they or someone they knew had a life planning document disrespected. life planning documents remain out of reach for low income seniors. we must find that all of our families and seniors can determine for themselves who should make important decisions regarding medical care, finances and other fundamental matters. thank you very much. >> chair kim: thank you, mr. headman. next we have emerald o'leary and felicia elizondo. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you very much for putting up this task force. i come to you not representing any organization, but associated with a few. i've been grateful beneficiary of healthy san francisco in the last nine months, and also services from open house, and emotional support from a predominantly african-american lesbian gay transgender church,

city of -- ucc in downtown san francisco. so i have a background of many things, most of all i'm a senior lesbian, in desperate need of senior housing. and have a real appreciation without all the wonderful backgrounds of candidates here, of the things that can be done, and should be done. so i thank you very much for your task force, and i know it will do great things for us. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you, ms. o'leary. felicia elizondo, and frank strona. >> hi, and thank you for having me. my name is felicia elizondo. also known as felicia flames. i am a screaming -- and a diva. i am proud on what i have accomplished and have done in my

life. a long time ago i thought i was unworthy until i came to san francisco -- no, until i became hiv positive in 1987. i was given the -- hero award by -- of perpetual indulgence. in 2000 i was given the testimony award by shanti. and let me see. and i have worked for the -- i have worked for project open hand. i have worked for shanti. i have worked for lgbt community center. i've been involved with the san francisco -- court. i was misdebutant, royal crown princess, court member of the year, court best female dressed, i was given the humanitarian award for their thing. and let me see. i'm one of the survivors of

the -- cafeteria riot. i'm just one of them. i'm sure there's many of them but i'm the surviving one. in 2007 -- harris did a documentary of felicia and interviewed for the project history award -- have it ended. it's very hard to give a senior five minutes when they can take an hour. and one thing more. in 2012i been given the vanguard award for the transgender law center which will be done in october. one thing i really suggest that if it's lgbt, i wanted to be lgbt. i want no longer for the t to be silent. we want equality within our lgbt community. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you.

next, we have frank strona and helene wenzel. frank is not here, then helene wenzel and james illig. >> i am awed by your work on my behalf. i'm a solo practitioner. i do estate planning in elder law for 15 years in the greater bay area. i worked with horizons, new leaf and other organizations, relevant to our community, to bring vital information to the lgbt aging community as well as the lgbt younger community. my clients have been singles, couples, rdts, partners, married same-sex, couples from

generation x to folks in their 90's, i also did lgbt work little did i know i would be doing elder lgbt work very quickly. i've addressed many different organizations, churches, community groups, and shared what i know about aging, and about the law, about advanced healthcare directives. i've done them for groups where i've brought my notary book and handed things out for free, quote unquote. i'd like to share more of that with the greater san francisco community in any way that i can. mr. redman mentioned the need for educating, and we also need education and availability of -- documents. i see close of hand unfortunately, people of lgbt persuasion whose families have stepped in and taken over in situations that they had no

reason to be in, except that legally they had a right to it. so, again, i'm honored to be here. i'd be very happy to work alongside of the committee if i'm not of the committee. and i thank you very much for your time. >> chair kim: thank you so much, ms. wenzel. next we have james illig and then jazzie collins. >> good afternoon. my name is jim illig and i am a lgbt senior, resident of district 9. i've worked with lgbt seniors my entire professional career in san francisco starting with the medical center, continuum hiv surfaces and project open hand but more importantly from your perspective is you're looking for people with experience with community planning bodies, policy bodies, dealing with the public, arriving at consensus. i just completed eight years on the health commission, including three years as its president, and a year as its vice

president. before that i served on two planning bodies, created by this board of supervisors, the living wage task force that i chaired, and the nonprofit contract streamlining task force. both of those task forces were like this one proposed, time limited with the specifics -- recommendations and i'm looking forward to bringing you policy suggestions. one in particular that i mentioned at the last hearing, department of public health has an excellent process of assuring competency by requiring every service provider to certify their cultural competency every year. i think that would be a simple way of getting at who knows what they're doing, with which group, and how well are they doing it. i ask for your consideration to this appointment. >> chair kim: thank you. also, thank you for your years of service on the health commission. really important body here in

the scoin o city and county of san francisco. >> i'm not going to reiterate what's already on my application. however i will say that i have did public service for two and a half years with west summer planning task force to look at planning and rezoning in the western half of south of market. also served four years on soma as advisory committee chair where -- my relationship we had three town hall meetings to find out how can the community stabilize poorly income community. i'm not going to continue with that but highlight that my -- skills -- i know how to get things done. i know what leadership is about. i've been in leadership roles. i'm willing to sit down and listen to others. what make good task force members, someone that's able to listen. and not allow anyone to

influence me with my decision how i vote yes or no. that's the part -- that's why i would love to sit on this task force, and to get back into public service for my community because us baby boomers need somebody to speak up for us who will be turning 60 within 10 years according to department of aging services but i will be turning 60 in less than 10 years. i will be happy for you to consider me as -- on the task force. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you. jerome coffee and jorge rodriguez. >> good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee. my name is jer home cuffey. i woke up one morning in june of this year and realized i was 60. i'm from new york. i moved here in 1996. i have a degree in psychology from union college from