move forward bruce wolfe to -- with a positive recommendation to the full board is because i have actually gone to task force meetings, and i do believe that bruce wolfe has played a really important role, and can play and needs to continue to play a very important role in that task force. i actually think that you're not going to find a more thoughtful, prepared, and well-informed member of that task force. and even though mr. wolfe may have a respect perspective on a specific issue, i do believe that he is the kind of individual that goes out of his way to listen to the other side, and to take the other side -- the other perspective into consideration. i have seen that time and time again. and i actually was present at

the last task force meeting that took place, the first meeting following the appointment of new members, and i have to say that i saw, firsthand, the need for the kind of experience and institutional knowledge that mr. wolfe has. i really believe that the work of that task force can be a lot better, that the work product can be more -- a lot better and more effective, if he is on that task force. i have not always agreed with everything that mr. wolfe has decided on the task force, but i have respected where he's coming from, and i understand why, you know, he concluded in a certain way. so i really think that we have an opportunity to just move forward. mr. wolfe, i think, is someone who will bring not only the expertise and the knowledge, but

also a fair approach. i think it will be even-handed. and i really hope that we give him opportunity to serve. so i proudly make a motion that we move forward bruce wolfe with a positive recommendation, and lastly i will say that i make that motion without taking anything away from the two other individuals who have come forward. they each bring something to the table. and, again, we are grateful to them and commend them for their willingness to serve. ms. simon, my partner worked with latifa simon so we recognize the history of your service. whether it's ms. simon or ms. forsley, that we have the opportunity to appoint you to city commission at some point because i think each one of you has something to offer that the city could benefit from.

so i make that motion. thank you. >> chair kim: thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor farrell. >> supervisor chiu: sprank tra , chair kim. these are always difficult decisions but we have to move forward with someone. let me say a few things because a lot was brought up in the public comment and otherwise. speaking as someone who did not vote to seat mr. wolfe, i guess it was a number of months now to the sunshine ordinance task force, there was certainly no intent to stop the task force from meeting, and agree that there was, as supervisor campos mentioned, a general unawareness of what was happening by doing so, and stopping the task force from meeting by our charter. i do have a bit of a different approach though. i don't -- just because of that, i don't believe we need to seat someone necessarily. we still want to find the right

person, and someone that we believe in to sit on the sunshine ordinance task force or any other task force or commission that we appoint. i don't believe just because there's one requirement that we're going to have to appoint someone that we don't believe in that will do the right job. despite a lot of comments i think everyone who voted not to seat mr. wolfe wants to see the task force seated and see the task force in action. we believe it's a vital part of our city government. similar to my reasoning before, this was not a -- although some of the appointments out of the rules committee and otherwise, that the full board have become political, to me the reasoning that i did not feel comfortable agreeing to vote for people on the task force before, was -- and we're talking about the rule of law here, when they violated the rule of law and amended their own bylaws in the face of our city charter relating to the quorum requirements and the

voting requirements i cannot in good faith sit here and vote for someone to seat someone that voted in favor of that, whether they led the charge or just voted on it. to me it's not something that's appropriate and not something that i can support. however i appreciate the fact that right now we need to seat someone from the handicapped community. i believe that needs to be a priority of ours. i believe we had -- you know, it was ms. simon who i think would be eminently qualified. i also know and am aware of that bruce oka, who was a former mta commissioner, who served with -- as a distinguished member there, someone that i didn't agree with many of his actions as well, but someone i would be very happy to support here at the sunshine ordinance task force, submitting his application today or submitting it in the next few days and someone i believe we could get full support. i think we talk about diversity here at the rules committee. someone that would bring the

first asian member to the sunshine ordinance task force. i think that would be very important, and someone that i would support and i think would have the full support of the board of supervisors. to me, my approach, i appreciate the motion, it's not something that i would support today because, in my opinion, we're going to go through this same thing we went through a number of months ago, where mr. wolfe -- unless maybe some things change, but i don't believe will have the full support of the board of supervisors, and wil we'll be bk here again. i would prefer to continue this item, wait 'til mr. oka comes forward and i would bet that mr. oka would have the support of the board of supervisors, and at least six members of the board so we can seat the sunshine ordinance task force as soon as possible and really get moving with the business of what that task force is all about. again, i appreciate that there's difference much opinions here on that, but that's something that i would certainly support. again, i want to emphasize from

my perspective, this is about following the rule of the law. it's about what happened before. to me it is not a political thing. this is about getting someone that everyone can agree with, that has served the city before, in a distinguished fashion and can serve it again, even though i've disagreed with mr. oka on a number of matters at mta board, he's someone i would support for this commission. i appreciate, chair kim, your opinion on this. i don't think we need to do a procedural motion over motion but that is something i would support and would recommend here. >> chair kim: thank you. we do have a motion to move forward on bruce wolfe with recommendation to the full board. i know that we actually previously had recommended bruce wolfe to the full board and i was one of the members who supported bruce. there was concern i had with the sunshine task force around the city charter and some violations that were made but bruce was one

individual that i thought was very committed to making reforms that were necessary to follow the city charter and i also believe has a strong commitment to sunshine and i will continue to support bruce wolfe as our appointee to the sunshine task force. i do want to thank both ms. simon and ms. forsley for your interest to serve. i think that there are a number of different committees and task force that your background would ideally suit and it seems there's more of a general interest to serve in any capacity, more than just specifically the sunshine task force itself. i know in mr. wolfe's circumstances he is specifically interested in sunshine and transparency and open government and for that reason i would like to support him as well. i want to recognize supervisor farrell's comments though regarding the fact that -- (no audio) -- i do want to give him an opportunity to do so, to meet with my colleagues and see if

he's able to garner some other support. if it isn't, i suspect -- i know that this item will then come back and be referred to rules committee. i know mr. oka, i'm a huge fan of mr. oka. i'm glad that he's interested in this committee. unfortunately his application did not come in by the the time we agendized the rules committee and for that reason i feel for the sake of the process and honoring the process i will be supporting moving this motion out to the full board. but i do think that there is some -- i do think that supervisor farrell had brought some valid concerns but i want to give mr. wolfe that opportunity to lobby and make his case to other members of this board of supervisors. so, supervisor farrell, i don't believe you actually made the motion that you had discussed, and i appreciate your willingness to not engage in the rigmarole. we have a motion to move forward mr. wolfe with recommendation. and we do have a comment from supervisor wiener.

>> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. when i came in today, his i was not planning on saying anything. i actually came for the next item, the very important lgbt senior task force. and i look forward to getting to that so i was not planning on commenting on this. but there were a number of comments that were made by members of the public that could be i think confusing to both those that are here today and those who are watching, who have not followed this saga. and personal attacks and personalizing things are really pretty misleading way. smns, once a prominent member of the san francisco political progressive community told me a number of years ago that you know you've made it big time when people start seeing your

fingerprints on things you didn't touch, and people start at tributing all sorts of power to you that you don't have. as much as it might be nice to make decisions for the entire board of supervisors, i don't have that power. i'm one out of 11. the fact is that what happened with the previous members of the task force not being reappointed, all of the ones -- incumbents that were rejected, except for mr. wolfe, were removed by the rules committee. i'm not on the rules committee. i was not even at that meeting. one incumbent made it to the full board, bruce wolfe, and six supervisors, not one, six voted to appoint someone in his stead. while i'm flattered that some members of the public appear to believe that i have the power to act or to in any way pressure 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