i have attended the commission on the environment meeting for certain issues related to the urban forestry council and have run into tireless activists from other areas of the city. one of the people i have come to know is dr. espinola jackson from the bayview district. she has great concerns about environmental justice for the people in her exhausted. community. speaking of the bayview district, after december 2011, i found myself to be the only councilmember ~ who attended mayor lee's press meeting to applaud the efforts of the neighbors who worked on the model block project on newcomb avenue. it may be tough for somebody on the urban forestry council to attend these events who has another job. i think to the greatest extent possible since we are automobile volunteers, a community seat member should go out and look at what other people in the neighborhood are doing. i have staffed the usc urban paper table to field questions and concerns from the public. i am also the only person, by

the way, who has a landmark tree on the council. i work with scientists, experts from state university and my arborists to plead my case, and this is really pleading my case, to get my tree landmarked. i learned much about the urban forestry council which was created by the board of supervisors in 2001 and how it is charged with many things including watching over the canopy of the city to protect community interests and let the citizens know about the full range of tree benefits. it is hoped that the urban forestry council becomes a place where everybody feels comfortable to discuss tree issues, no matter what their socioeconomic or ethnic cultural background. as you probably know from the attendance record for the council, i have a 100% attendance record for the full council and committees. this shows you that i take this volunteer role seriously. i think it is important that any candidate who wishes to apply for any position on the

council actually attend various and multiple meetings before they are considered for any position. it is also very important that councilmembers have an excellent attendance record to move the business of the council forward. i do ask for you to allow me to continue my work with the community on the council. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much. [inaudible]. i think there is a misunderstanding. >> he is registered in san rafael to vote on his application. and also on our agenda it was listed that a residency waiver was required. so, i need to make sure that that information gets verified internally. thank you. >> so, any public comments on

item number 4? come on up. two minutes. thank you again. espinola jackson, bayview hunters point. i would like to say i'm here to support rose hillson because of her great work and the fact that like she stated, when you get these positions, you're supposed to really want to serve, you know, san franciscans, the community, and not have a lot of abcents like we have on some committees. it is very important that people participate if they want to serve, you know, because they are serving you as well as the rest of the citizens of san francisco. so, i'm asking for your support to say yes to rose. thank you very much. you all have a blessed day. >> thank you.

♪ green, green, it's far they say on the side of the appointment green, green and i hope you pick a good appointment for the seat you're going to fill green oh, green i hope you pick a good appointment please and i hope you make it green and i hope you pick a good appointment the best ones that you've seen green, green is the appointment green on the hill on the far side of the city hail green, green, and you're going to pick a good appointment and the seat you're going to fill and they walk in appointment zoll -- solitude [speaker not understood] and you're going to pick appointments now and i know it's going to be fine and the city, the forest gonna

shine in the city rockey mountain forest high i know you're going to pick appointments from the sky and i know you're going to make it and you're going to make the city budget forest fly city mountain high on these appointments ♪ thanks good afternoon, i'm nancy russell. i'm here today to personally support the application of rose hillson. she is applying for the community seat on the urban forestry council. she is the perfect embodiment of talents to speak on behalf of the greater san francisco community. she is unanimously endorsed by the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods that comprises 48 neighborhood groups. she is currently serving on the council as the landmark tree

committee chair. mrs. hillson is what the board of supervisors had in mind when they approved the formation of the council in 2001. from that ordinance the purpose was stated, "it is the intent of the board of supervisors to form an urban forestry council that will protect the community interest and ensure san francisco realizes the full range of tree benefits into the future." the ordinance also states that to meet this purpose, the council shall work with the effective stakeholders to educate the public on urban forestry issues. this is why there are two seats for community persons to participate in this vital work of preserving our trees as a vital resource of san francisco's urban forest system. the ordinance also states that a unified and effective response to the challenges facing the urban forest require input from the public in the decisions on the care of trees. this is where mrs. hillson is

so effective. she knows the issue, she articulates them well, and she has access to the community groups she is serving. when she makes herself heard in public arenas such as the monthly coalition meeting and her own local organization. she listens to the concerns of the neighbors and interested parties on both sides of tree issues. she is the public voice to the council and brings balance to the many issues before our city departments responsible for our trees. rose hillson does a superior job as a [speaker not understood] forest advocate and spokesperson for all of us. please keep our san francisco communities well represented on this important body. she deserves your continued support. thank you very much. >> thank you. seeing no other further public comment, public comment is closed. i'd like to suggest that we continue to the call of the

chair for seats number 2 and 3. is there a motion? seeing no objection, that motion is moved. there are, then, five other applicants for the five other seats. would somebody like to just move the nomination of all five with the seat number assignments to the full board without objection? supervisor breed. >> thank you. i'd like to move john hillan for seat 1, dan flanagan for seat 4, sandy sherwin for seat 5, william moss for seat 6 and rose hillson for seat 7. >> and there's a second. seeing no objection, then the motion is moved.

item 4 is done. okay. madam clerk, please call item number 1. by the way, congratulations to the applicants. thank you for coming today. >> item number 1, hearing to consider appointing one member, for an indefinite term, to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender seniors task force. there is one seat and 33 applicants. >> at least on paper i see like tons of applicants. so, we're going to hear from the applicants as they appear on the agenda. it's a large number. i'd like to ask that you limit your comment to no more than two minutes. so, i will call your name. if you're here, come on up to the mic. first one is aaron parness. are you here? aaron parness.

alex kinney. alyssa nickell. carl stokes. connell persico. cynthia davis. emerald o'leary. frank strona. joyce pierson. gregg cassin. come on up. [inaudible]. >> you're first. thank you, i think.

well, thank you. nice to meet you all. and i just want to say thank you for creating the task force. i am a gay dad. i've lived in san francisco since 1980. i tested positive in the early '80s, went on to disability maybe 10 or 12 years ago, but stayed really involved here, activities. i just think this task force is incredibly important. i think that the things that i look and i see most is how people -- how fast people can become invisible and how much a social network and how much it takes actually caring for and watching out for our lgbt [speaker not understood]. i had an experience of being senior almost by being on disability for a long time and kind of being marginalized and kind of stepping outside the system and having to [speaker not understood] myself a bit

and relying on things like a task force for social services that have been incredibly helpful and generous for me. i want to read a little [speaker not understood] projects that i've been working on. most of my work has been in organizing and organizing community groups and either political groups or social networking groups. i started in 1985 a support group for people with hiv. that grew to be 100 or so folks coming every thursday. it was called the healing circle. i worked -- are you kidding? okay, do i have 30 seconds? okay. and then i worked at the corridor [speaker not understood] for november 15th [speaker not understood]. i'm working with cleve jones for a march [speaker not understood]. i am a volunteer at [speaker

not understood] hospice. thank you for this opportunity. i'm going to leave you with a poster for the march [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. any questions of mr. cassin? supervisor cohen. >> thank you. i have a question for you. i have actually two. i first want you to describe to me your advocacy -- i take that back, you did that in your previous comments. can you describe to me some of the work that you've done in some of the ethnic communities, lgbt ethnic communities? well, for years i was running an organization called aids benefit of miracles. one of the things that's powerful about the [speaker not understood] community from the early days we had to all come together. there was just no -- we didn't get to split up into separate groups. there is a group aidses benefit a miracle i was the lead facilitator and the chairperson in the ward. we had folks from every corner of the bay area coming to that. it was a national organization for awhile, then it became a

bay area organization. as folks from oakland, folks down in the peninsula, we had latino -- we had whole families coming together. folks from the projects. we had folks recently released from prison. we just had a great mixture of people and now my tree hospice of course we have an incredible mix of folks. one of the things that we worked on in doing any of our planning work when doing -- like for the march for equality, is we have this really great diverse group of people. so, we have older folks like myself and cleve jones, and then we have kids that are like 20 years old. we have kids that are, you know, mixed race. it's been an incredible project, and that is -- i guess that's what makes any of this work really exciting and it's when there is a great diversity of people. age wise, for me age wise as well as ethnicity as well as

cultural income, you know, like life line san francisco is very welcoming of people. people socialize that are -- people on disability, people that are poor folks and people that are wealthy folks. i find it's way different from i came from new york. it's very different from new york. >> thank you. >> thank you. is that it? >> um-hm. thank you. >> is it helena? helene. >> helene wenzel. good afternoon. the next thing you have to fix is the parking around city hall. i am helene wenzel. i'm say senior, a lesbian, in a committed relationship 24 years, we are married. i've been in san francisco enough years to see a big change in the population and the growth of the eldering

community from san francisco, the lgbt elders. i'm an elder law attorney and my focus for a good 50% of my clients is on lgbt issues, financial, health, estate planning, et cetera. and what i see there is a great deal of focus on aids, on invisibility, questions on living alone or together, outliving a partner, on illness and death within our community, on housing and the lack thereof past a certain point if you're not gainfully employed or have a very huge pension from something that you did when you were gainfully employed, you might be out on the streets in san francisco. i have not done much political work here. i have been -- this is a mid-life career change for me. i was a college professor. i was [speaker not understood] at san francisco state when it

was largely lesbian. i've been on the aids legal referral panel. in fact, the first work i did as an attorney was at my tree when it was still on henry street. i've worked at the [speaker not understood] nclr elder love forum. i'm past president of the national academy of elder law attorneys, local northern california chapter. i would bring new blood and new ideas, even though i'm in an old body and i would be very happy to work with [speaker not understood] people. i understand there is some interest in having a woman and a lawyer. i am both. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? seeing none, thank you very much. next person is james illig. i-l-l-i-g. i'm sorry, thank you. next person is james wagoner.

good afternoon. i'm a recent law school graduate. i graduated from jfk university school of law last year. and currently i'm honored to be the boardshire fellow in law and aging at bay area legal aid where i started the project for glbt senior advocacy in september and the project is basically concerned with providing legal representation and advice concerning public benefits for lgbt seniors. the project is trying to ensure that lgbt seniors do not -- low-income lgbt seniors do not disappear from our community if something goes wrong with their benefits. and so far we've had some

successes and we had some challenges. but the project will continue for the rest of this year and i have made this my last career. i suffered a period of illness and disability with hiv/aids. i recognize that as well as the doctors helped me, the lawyers helped me, too. i decided there was something i could do to repay the community that had supported me when i was in need and when i was vulnerable. so, i went to law school at the age of 53. i'm now 57. i'm enjoying very much working with seniors. they've got great stories to tell. they need to remain in our community. and the task force is one way of assessing how we can keep

them in the community. i'm currently a member of the equity advisory committee of the human rights -- san francisco human rights commission. and we have worked with some -- on some senior issues on that committee in the past year. i have the best job in the world and i would like to be a member of the task force because i believe the work it is doing is going to be groundbreaking. it's going to serve our community and it's going to show other communities how they can best approach the rising flood of seniors that are coming our way. and the issues that lgbt people experience in particular. thank you. >> okay, thank you. any questions? supervisor cohen.

>> thanks. i'm curious to know, in your work, in your professional life, what kind of work did you do within the lgbt community as well as within the lgbt ethnic communities? i've had very little experience with the ethnic communities. it's one of the challenges of my job to do outreach to every part of the lgbt community. and i've been doing this for a bit over six months and that challenge remains. >> so, how do you overcome those challenges? i build alliances. i find somebody in the community who already has connections with other people who have a wealth of information and experience with the issues involved. and i rely on their mentorship basically. so far i've put a lot of focus

on transgender people because it was the least familiar to me of all of the lgbt community. i really enjoyed building alliances there. >> so, you mentioned you're 57 years old. yes. >> you put it out there, not me. [laughter] >> what i'm looking to hear is how you spent your professional career. maybe it wasn't in the lgbt community, but maybe you spent it building relationships in other communities. san francisco is a pretty ethnically diverse community. also there are not only challenges in the lgbt/hiv community, but also an interesting layer of complexity when you add growing up in a culture that may have -- you may have grown up in a culture where your sexual orientation choice was frowned upon. so, i'm looking for someone that has experience in that area that can identify or be

able to really connect with a person, that they can under the experiences. so, maybe not in your most recent career as a new lawyer, but previous -- previous work experience, you can draw upon that. my earliest experience was when i was teaching at catholic university in washington, d.c. i became the faculty sponsor to the first gay student organization there. and i was promptly fired for that. so, i understand what it's like to be -- that was in 1980. so, i'm the generation right after the stone wall generation. i'm the one that we were trying to be active and out, and it was a challenge then. i understand what many of my friends were born the generation before me. i understand what it's like for them, that they have a different outlook than i do,

and it deserves respect as well. i've been part of the generation that was heavily discriminated against, bullied in school. i understand what it is to be ostracized and looked down upon. i chose early on to be out and to suffer the consequences of being out. >> all right, thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you. next person on my list is jeremy cuffey. next one is john caldera. next one is kathleen hentges. next one that may be here is lawrence nelson. next one is mark burns.

you skipped a couple names. >> i skipped a couple names because i have indication that they're not here. thank you. i just wanted to put that up quickly. >> no, i actually wanted to put you first. so, you can see from my background that i have a very broad base of both community service and professional experience that touches on a lot of work this task force is asked to look at. i have community based [speaker not understood], community home care, lgbt mental health, [speaker not understood] programs, hiv and aids services, the list goes on. i have a lot of experience in these areas. so, with all due respect the work the task force has already been doing several months, i think what i can bring to that is a lot of professional experience and community passion around the service. i've had the opportunity the last year to work on the mayor's long-term integration design group which has really given me a great perspective on

both the challenges the city faces with a lot of managed care coming and the desire to increase access, and to increase coordination of services. and with a lot of conversation around as we do with ihss, cultural appropriateness. which have 11% of our client base that is lgbt as well. i had the opportunity at new leaf to be the board advisor to the elders council. i want to share a quick story. when the dph cut funding to that program, i got the chance to work with a group of elders who were all activists during the '60s who out of their own pockets put together an event every saturday for laguna honda hospital. they would bake their own casseroles, [speaker not understood]. because the nursing staff refused to assist them throw these events, they helped walk and wheel the residents out of their room to this party. to those who were an integral

part of the society in the 60s and 70s this was the only chance they had to be part of their community again on a monthly basis. i think taking that sort of thought forward into the type of compassion and cultural appropriateness we need to design into our long term care is a need this task force has. thank you very much. >> thank you. any questions? supervisor cohen. >> [inaudible]. so, part of our packet -- it is frustrating people looking for a seat write a letter, have a friend write a letter. we receive letters from mark leno and tom ammiano. i want you to describe work you've done with both these gentlemen. i know both of them from a lot of fund-raising experience back when i was executive director of under one room roof. i first met senator leno when he played santa claus for me in

a fund-raiser in gay men's chorus that we were doing. i've had the opportunity just in the past few years to work with his office on sb 10 08 which was the dual project legislation, and we were cooperating with seiu to design some long-term care training models that were going to be used statewide during this demonstration project. something ammiano and i have done, a lot of fund-raising work together in the hiv community mostly under one roof. he also works with my partner who is the director of the experience area doing fund-raising for school programs. >> so, staying uniform with my line of questioning, for those members here listening, you can please tailor your comments to incorporate them to my question. i'd like you to describe for me the work you've done in various ethnic communities within the lgbt. first knowing there is an

lgbt population throughout san francisco, i have a lot of working diversity in my professional career and in my service. i'm a member of glide. i do a lot of volunteer work at glide, sing with the choir there, i've been with them for 10 years. in my current work we have an extremely diverse client base. our client base is microcosm of san francisco. i think that we have less than 50% caucasian members -- >> who do you work for? in home supportive services consortium. i'm their deputy director. >> okay. and my work in alameda county. i have probably the most diverse experience in my life, 25% of the population are identified openly as lgbt and we have branches in east month, fruit veil, and downtown [speaker not understood]. so a lot of experience working with the population. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you. >> next person is