jonathan pearlman's candidacy as san francisco historian for the perez r vation commission. although as a physician and epidemiologist, my own career was environmental health, teaching at harvard, ucla, uc berkeley, and then for 27 years heading up environmental health research at the california department of public health. ~ i grew up with a family of architects. after my retirement, i have been helping cal poly pomona restore the historic 1932 studio residences designed by my father, richard noytra, one of the founders of california modern. i have been visiting with other historic modernist house museums around the world to learn about their restoration and programming. i was invited to serve on the program committee of the noytra house in los altos. it was originally a small residence of poet jacqueline

johnson, designed by my father in the late 1930s. it has been restored and adaptively reused as an intimate conference venue. i have had the pleasure of working with mr. pearlman on his program committee. what i have noticed about mr. pearlman is this. he understands not only the importance of sensitive restoration and adaptive reuse, but also the intellectual historical context of original buildings. he is widely read in the history of architecture, although we are volunteers on that committee, he always follows through on what he volunteers to do. he is skilled not only as an architect, but also as a graphic designer and has been responsible for designing all the graphics related to the noytra house and its website. he has initiated a yearly house tour in the los all toes area whose income pay [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. thank you. >> okay. seeing no more people, public comment is now still open. [laughter] thank you. >> are there any more speakers?

please come up, because otherwise i can't tell if there are. good afternoon, chair yee, supervisor breed, supervisor cohen. congratulations to the new supervisors. it's not an easy job to attain. my name is joe butler, i'm an architect, i've been in san francisco since 193 and a licensed architect in california since 1984. i, too, like mr. pearlman, come at preservation from a slightly different place. i spent almost 20 years as the founding member of [speaker not understood] house committee fighting the demolition of historic buildings that were owned by members of the residential builders whom i understand have put forward his nomination to you today. i could give you three quick addresses, 900 innes, which i believe is in cohen's district, supervisor cohen, 1269 lombard, mark farrell's district, and [speaker not understood] which is in noe valley.

the fact that that is where this nomination comes from troubles me. but the fact of his 2009 resume troubles me even more. i oppose that in 2009 and at great concern for my political and professional life came to you as a board to oppose that nomination. architects are a fraternity and a sorority, but we respect each other in our [speaker not understood] styles differ in our opinions. but mr. pearlman's listing architectural history as his av degree, i find out from tufts university this morning is not correct. so, i tried the word history, a major in history is not correct. was it a major in architectural history, no? was it a major in art and architectural history? no. ~ so, i'm troubled by that as well as by the fact that when one looks at his website, he refers to the buildings that he

renovates which are historic as rabbit war of brooms in a tired old house, as a ram shackle house, as a dilapidated house, falling down 1880s victorian with only the facade salvageable. that's not what the city family needs in its commissioners. thank you. >> i have a question for you, sir. >> sir. >> you tell me, you called tufts university to verify whether -- what his degree is in? yes, ma'am. >> and what did you find out? i spoke with shad nell keith women yams at 617-6 27-2000. she's in the registrar's office. she can't give me because i'm not mr. pearlman, what his degree was in, but she can say that for the record, in response to my question, that yes, he does have an ab degree and it was in 19l 0, but she can't tell me what the major was. so, i tried all of those different options and she said none of those are what are posted to his transcript.

~ 1980 1980 >> mr. pearlman, there will be an opportunity. that's it. thanks. >> thank you. i will -- go ahead. good afternoon, members of the committee. mike bueler with san francisco architectural heritage. as you know, heritage is seeking a continuance of today's item to allow time for concerned organizations, including heritage and san francisco beautiful the opportunity to meet with mr. pearlman and further discuss his qualifications for this position and his aspirations for the commission. i did have the opportunity to speak with mr. pearlman yesterday afternoon. as you have just heard, he's very forthright and well spoken. however, there are significant concerns that we still have that would benefit from further dialogue.

first of all, heritage learned of the nomination just late last week and, of of course, the agenda for today's item was just posted early this week despite our efforts to regularly check in with the mayor's office. secondly, we understand that the nomination was put forward by the residential builders association, an organization that has been openly and publicly hostile to historic preservation protections in san francisco in the past. we would certainly like to know more about mr. pearlman's association with rba and under if his views are reflective of their past positions on articles 10 and 11 and historic preservations in the city. lastly, what we heard about most or qualifications, mr. pearlman is being nominated [speaker not understood] the architectural historian seat, has a specially rigorous requirement set forth by the secretary of the interior that typically require a graduate

degree in architectural history. although mr. pearlman does have an undergraduate degree, it would require a demonstration of two years of teaching or writing or research experience, or having made a substantial contribution to scholarly knowledge in the field of american architectural history. at this point we're not reassured that he has that. thank you very much. >> at this moment i'd like to bring up -- ask a question of the city attorney. andrea [speaker not understood]. there's been a question about mr. pearlman's qualification for this seat. can you respond to that? >> good afternoon, rules committee. deputy city attorney andrew chen. mr. bueler i think correctly enunciated the standard for seat 3 on the historic preservation commission. the architectural historian

seat. i don't have much more to add to the legal standards, although i'm happy to restate it for the committee if that would be helpful at all. but it is the charge of the committee obviously to determine whether mr. pearlman does meet those qualifications set forth in the charter. >> go ahead. >> can you explain to me what the role is in terms of verifying certain qualifications for this particular position prior to them coming before the rules committee? >> through the chair to supervisor breed, i can't speak to every aspect of what additional screening mr. pearlman may have received before being forwarded to the committee. perhaps someone from the mayor's office can speak in more detail to that. i'm sure the mayor's office did review the qualifications and applicable standards with mr. pearlman. and obviously part of the

process, in term of determining who should be appointed to this seat on the historic preservation commission, obviously this hearing is a very important part of that. mr. pearlman obviously had an opportunity to explain his background and the committee members obviously had the opportunity to explore that further with him here. >> thank you. >> mr. pearlman, would you like to come up and respond to the qualification piece? sure. >> maybe, maybe just in the interest of moving the agenda, we can ask specific questions to mr. pearlman such as can you tell us what your degree is? yes. so, my degree is an ab in fine arts with a major in american architectural history. >> okay, thank you very much. mr. butler i don't think asked about fine arts. >> thank you. come on up. supervisors, my name is

stuart morton. i served under three mayors, moscone, feinstein and jordan on the landmarks board. i am also right now the chair of the preservation consortium which is a city-wide group of preservations and neighborhoods and professionals. we interviewed mr. pearlman in 2009 prior to the hpc's commissioners being appointed. we did not recommend mr. pearlman at that time, feeling he was inappropriate for the seat which he was being proposed. again, we have the same problem. we haven't had a chance, however, to interview him once more, but the consortium is against his nomination. thank you. >> which seat did you interview him for in 2009? i was trying to think just a moment ago. i don't remember. >> all right, thank you very much. >> thank you. seeing no other public comment,

public comment is now closed. because of the way this was stated on the agenda, we have to make an amendment. colleagues, can we have a motion to amend the motion to confirm the appointment of jonathan pearlman to the historical preservation commission? >> i'm sorry, just as a point of clarification. can you read into the record what exactly the error is on the agenda? >> when madam clerk announced it, i mean read out what this is on the agenda -- >> um-hm. >> -- on the agenda itself, it says motion approving/rejecting the mayor's nomination for

appointment of jonathan pearlman to the historical preservation commission for seat number 3 for a term ending december 31st, 2016, and which madam clerk had read out. and what we need is to make an amendment to approve because right now there is either/or and you cannot vote on either/or. under? >> yes. >> okay. so, i need a motion. >> second. >> okay, roll call, please, for this, the amendment. >> on the amendment to strike through the words rejecting, supervisor breed? >> aye. >> breed aye. supervisor cohen? >> excuse me. rejecting? >> strike through the word rejecting. >> thank you. >> supervisor cohen? >> aye. >> cohen aye. supervisor yee? yee aye. >> thank you.

now, colleagues, is there a motion to move forward this appointment with recommendation to the full board? >> i'd like to make a comment. >> please do. >> thank you. when evaluating a nominee, the first question i ask, is the person qualified. after reviewing mr. pearlman's qualifications, reviewing materials and the work that he's done in the past based on historic preservation assessment, i truly believe that he is. i also ask, has he made himself available to me and my staff? and he has, and has been open about answering questions, and is available, i'm sure, to anyone else who is interested in meeting with him as well to discuss his seat on the historic preservation -- his potential seat on the historic preservation commission. lastly, i ask, is there something in the nominee's body of work or his philosophy that renders him unacceptable for the position? and based on my review, the

answer is no. mr. pearlman is a practical preservationist. i may not always agree with his specific assessments, but i trust that he shares the right values. he understands that our historic resources shouldn't be mosoleums. they shouldn't stay boarded up for years at a time for fear that refurbishing will alter the slightest detail. historic resources should be preserved and reinvigorated to contribute to our communities. i am confident that mr. pearlman will advance the cause -- this cause as a member of the historic preservation commission and with that i'd like to move this nomination to the full board for consideration. >> supervisor cohen? >> thank you. before we make that motion, i just want to say a couple words also about mr. pearlman would i actually have come to know through this process. ~ who i have no bias coming into this process. as you know, i'm one of the newer members on the rules committee and our duty is charged with evaluating whether

or not a person is going to be capable of handling the duties and functions of the commission or board or cac or whatever the body is that they're looking to be appointed to. and i have not heard compelling reason why i should not support him. i'm concerned that, that heritage and the consortium have kind of trumped up some -- i can't really call them charges because you don't really charge on anything. but are looking for a reason to not support this, not support mr. pearlman. and i found very little relevance to whether or not there is any significance if mr. pearlman was or was not nominated by the rba or put forward. i also found that -- it hard to believe heritage doesn't know or is unfamiliar with mr.

pearlman considering that he's been living in san francisco for 24 years and has had many numerous years of working on various projects in san francisco. and, and so, i also would like to associate myself with some of the comments supervisor breed made on the criteria and the tools that we use to evaluate whether a candidate is strong and worthy. and, you know, in my conversations with mr. pearlman one on one, he seems to have met that bar and, quite frankly, i think we're pretty lucky to have him. i think he exceeds the bar and that standard that we're looking to -- that we're looking to have in the historic preservation commission. so, i, too, would like to make a motion to move this appointment forward with a positive recommendation from this body to the full board. >> my comment is that mr. pearlman will bring in a

slightly different perspective from maybe some of the other members on the commission. but in regards to his values of historical preservation, i feel very comfortable that he's move in the relevant being of understanding and seeing that perspective. without objection, we'll move this to the full board. >> second. >> excuse me, mr. chair. i'd like to ask whether you would like to send this item to the full board as committee for consideration on march 12? >> yes. is that okay? >> yes. >> thank you. okay. so, we are moving this to the full board. item 2, madam clerk. >> item number 2, motion approving/rejecting the mayor's nomination for appointment of ellen johnck to the historic preservation commission, seat no. 5, for a term ending december 31, 2016.

>> i believe ms. johnck is here today. please approach the microphone. good afternoon. >> you can move the microphone down if you'd like. good afternoon, chairman yee, supervisor breed, supervisor cohen. it is my honor to speak to you today and ask you for support of my appointment to the historic preservation commission, seat no. 5. i believe my background and experience meet the criteria for the preservation professional position in land use and community planning with specialized training in historic preservation. i have entitled the current chapter in my life and career as a parthenon project. my epiphany at the parthenon in greece inspired me to go back to graduate school to pursue a

degree in archeology. my historic preservation train is through my master of arts degree and cultural resources management, or crm, at sonoma state university. crm is a specialized area of archeology which covers training in several subjects, including, one, the national state and local laws for cultural and historic resource preservation such as the national historic preservation act and the national environmental policy and california environmental quality acts. two, historic architecture significance assessments and national and california register eligibility reports. and three, pre-historic and historic archeological survey in site investigation methods including data recording, evaluation and report writing. my experience in historic architecture includes the survey and research for a historic district nomination to the national register of historic places and as project manager for the current

historic american landscape survey at china camp heritage village in collaboration with [speaker not understood] of northern california and the california department of parks and recreation. based on my crm [speaker not understood] i was invited to develop and teach a new inter disciplinary course at the university of california berkeley's extension department of landscape architecture. entitled the cultural landscape preservation and sustainable practice. the course studied landscapes such as our san francisco harbor and how it is nurtured the social life, enterprise, architecture and community of the city. ~ as a san francisco resident since 1967, i have over 45 years of professional work and leadership in land use, planning, and environmental public policy arena. i have been involved in the writing and implementation of legislation which established the pre-imminent environmental institutions of today. such as bcdc, california coastal commission, state and regional water boards, state

and federal environmental protection agencies, and local state parks such as the golden gate recreation area. i've held positions appointed and executive positions at these institutions. [speaker not understood] moving projects and [speaker not understood] by the community providing a spring board into the future. in conclusion, i believe my background in philosophy will be a [speaker not understood]. my goal on the commission is to build greater public awareness of the value of the rich diversity of the city's

cultural history [inaudible] buildings, sites, landscapes and community. i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? seeing none -- >> i have a question. >> okay, supervisor cohen. >> if i called your university, would they tell me that you're -- [laughter] >> this is very serious, don't laugh folks, it's serious. we need everyone to be truthful and honest. okay, thank you. >> is there any public comments? you have two minutes. good afternoon, supervisors. i'm dee-dee [speaker not understood], director of public policy for the san francisco chamber of commerce. the san francisco chamber of commerce representing over 1500 local businesses supports the

appointment of ellen johnck to the historic preservation commission. ellen's background clearly meets the criteria for the preservation professional position and land use and community planning with specialized training and historic preservation. ellen has extensive san francisco planning and policy experience. she's been a leader in the public policy and land use arena, not just in san francisco, but in california and nationally for almost half a century. graduate training in cultural resources management, she fits the criteria for a seat on the commission. the san francisco chamber urges the board to support her appointment. thank you. >> thank you. ♪ you are a woman hear you roar and more -- and when your item's on the floor until you see your city understand

yes, you can and make the city shine yes, you pay the price you can do anything you are strong you are invincible you are [speaker not understood] on history mr. chair, supervisors, i'm jim hatvthv. i'm here to support my friend ellen johnck for the hpc position. she and i served many, many years for decades on the rincon beach advisory that saw the development of the south beach neighborhood and the ballpark. ~ you also may know that i'm a member of the city hall preservation commission and hold a building preservation seat. i was appoint today that by

mayor newsome and was reviewed by this committee sometime ago. my -- in spite of my 40 years involvement with preservation and 30 years with civic center, there were questions raised today about my qualifications. supervisor campos was the chair and had to spend a good deal of time with me going over that. and when he was done and read the 150 pages i gave him of documents, he couldn't figure out what the problem was. the moral of my experience, and i think is relevant today, is that with preservation -- you can come to preservation from a whole variety of experiences. it isn't one narrow thing, like being a nuclear physicist where you have to be licensed. and there are many, many ways of coming. and i think ellen johnck's experience, both with her years of experience involved with the bay and her more recent experience with archeology, it is going to be a great benefit to the hpc.

i don't know if there has been an archeologist on the hpc in the past, but that's an issue that always comes up in buildings. so, i urge you to use this opportunity to appoint someone who is well balanced, who is going to take into account the needs of the community and the property owners and be very diligent as a commissioner. thank you. >> thank you. seeing no more public comments, public comment is now closed. we're going to have to go through the same thing again as the previous one. where the agenda read approved/reject. so, colleagues, can we have a motion to amend the motion to confirm the appointment of ellen johnck to the historical -- historic preservation commission? >> so moved. >> second. >> second, okay. so, do we need to vote on this? no, okay.

so, we'll move this. now, colleagues, is there a motion to move forward this appointment with recommendations to the full board and can we do this as a committee report? >> so moved. >> second. >> move out of committee with recommendation. thank you. congratulations. madam clerk, item 3, please. >> item number 3, motion confirming the mayor's appointment of mel murphy, term ending may 1, 2016, to the port commission. >> i believe mr. murphy is here. mr. murphy, please approach the microphone. good afternoon, supervisors. >> good afternoon. first came to san francisco over 40 years ago, was welcomed with open arms from native san

franciscans. it is an honor to be considered for the port commission. [speaker not understood] i have a pair of glasses. having a problem finding them here. got them. by the way, i had to borrow these. i forgot mine. it is an honor to be considered for the port commission that manages miles of bayshore stretching from high street over to the indian basin into south with more than 600 acres under its jurisdiction. having been to korea in real estate both as a broker and developer, working on projects as large as the alaska pipeline to as small as victorian restorations, i'm very excited to be considered for the port commission. there are many aspects of the port commission's business that interest me, but in particular interest is a development lot

337 beside pier 48 with the eight acre of open space, parks, and infrastructure. i think we can all a greetgrape that this city can do a much better job utilizing the port department. the port has serious unfunded capital needs that must be addressed for the continued safe enjoyment of the waterfront. it is great to see this project privately funded by a developer. i know personally what it is like to invest a lot of money and wait 7 to 10 years and hope that my investment does not get wiped out by a recession. this project will result in increased land value and port revenue. a nice new neighborhood will be created and add to the urban fabric of the city.