feldman. good afternoon. i am the caring coordinator of psychotherapy services at the alliance health project. fortunately the aids health project. i have been active in providing lgbt community services since 1978 when at the age of 24 i worked at the gay center in los angeles at the [speaker not understood] counseling department. i've been continuously providing mental health services at the lgbt community in 1991, and san francisco for the last 15 years. i'm very aware that frequently when we talk about health, mental health is given short shift. mental health is an area that [speaker not understood] old whether housing or social service and frequently it's not a part of what we have. i have for the last 10 years been focused on the mental health needs of the aging lgbt community. i have devised a support group that meets and is open

regardless of hiv status, regardless of income, and it has a broad range of men -- in fact, we offer two groups. it's been a very popular outreach. in addition, i developed a training on the mental health needs which has been provided locally for various community organizations as well as graduate programs as well as nationally and next month i will be in australia at the melbourne health and difference conference which is a national conference on lgbt mental health issues, -- health issues and i will be presenting on mental health issues at that conference. i am an active member of the community partnership and also a member of the hiv and aging policy. what i bring, i hope, is the unique perspective to mental health to the committee and i would be honored to be selected as one of the members. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? seeing none, thank you very much.

next person is moll steinert. good afternoon, my name is mollie steinert. i have both a personal and professional interest in being on the task force. as an aging lesbian, i'm very committed to seeing that our community is friendly to the lgbt aging population in the city and that for those of us who chose to come here to find community, safety, and political work as well can age in this community successfully. professionally i was the former executive director of open house for three years and at open house the objective was to

make sure that services for aging lgbt people were accessible and available. and i spent a lot of work doing cultural competency training with our senior service agencies because we were unrepresented in those agencies. and made a great deal of headway. however, we continue to be unrepresented in those senior agencies and services. i also worked on housing, lgbt housing and was part of the effort for 55 laguna. currently i'm the executive director of stepping stone which run four adult day health centers in san francisco and i'm painfully reminded that we still have a very long way to go to make sure that lgbt

seniors are represented in our senior services. i'm also a member of the long-term care coordinating council in san francisco and i have a deep commitment to making sure that services are available to our community. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? seeing none, thank you very much. thank you. >> next person is nikos diaman. ray rudolph. richard appleby. rick crane. robert connors. valerie agostino. veronika fimbres.

william kirkpatrick. william lipsky. so, i didn't call several of the names that there were indications they wouldn't be here. so, i didn't want to miss anybody. is there anybody on this list that i did not call, just in case you are here? seeing none, okay. are there any public comments for this item? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. supervisor cohen. >> i have a question for the city attorney. i was wondering if you can tell me what is the makeup of this body? maybe the clerk of the board, i'm not quite sure. so, the task force is made up of

how many people and particularly want to know how many men, how many women? >> [speaker not understood]. i looked it up already. there's 14, one vacancy, supposed to be made up of 15. and currently there are 11 male and three females. >> okay, thank you very much. >> do you want ethnicity i can give you that. >> thank you. >> there's 7 caucasian, 3 asian, pacific islander, 3 african-american, 1 latino. supervisor breed? >> thank you. i think this is pretty amazing that we have so many not only qualified candidates, but so many candidates that are committed to the lgbt community, and specifically issues around seniors. and the person -- i know the person who previously held this seat and she was very much not

only committed to these issues, but as a transgender woman, she was really concerned about what that means for aging and being able to have access to affordable housing, care, and the kinds of things that help with the quality of life for all seniors in san francisco. i would like to, with that, i would like to move forward mark burns as the candidate for this particular seat primarily because of his work with in-home support services, a program i'm very intimately familiar with the work that they do in terms of cultural competence, the compassion that they demonstrate for our city's most disabled citizens who need care, is extremely important. and i think that we need that particular voice at the table

when discussing these issues. i actually made that decision before i had gotten the letters from mark leno, senator mark leno and assemblyman ammiano. but i respect their work in the lgbt community. and one of the things that i think mr. burns will bring to the table is his love, his genuine love for people. also his volunteerism, his spirit, and the arts as a member of the gay men's chorus who on occasions have practice at the african-american art culture complex. again, his diverse experience of being actively engaged in various aspects of our city, and being active in supporting seniors, especially our most vulnerable senior population, is something we really, really need at the table. so, i'd like to move his name

forward. thank you. >> again, i want to thank everyone that is present today and wanting to be serving the community, lgbt community and san francisco as a whole. like always, we seem to always get so many people that are qualified. i could see every single one of you who, as you stepped forward today, would bring a nice perspective to this group. one of my main concerns is -- one of the reasons why i looked up whats was the current makeup of the group -- of the task force was to find out what was the mix. and as we always want to do, we like to have a diverse group of folks. and right now currently what's really missing or what seems to be not balanced with the

diversity is with the gender, gender issue. so, i'm going to -- there were two women that were up here speaking today. they're both highly qualified. so, even making decision between the two women for myself is difficult. however, i will go ahead and put myself out there. my preference is to nominate moll steinert to be on this task force. and, again, everybody that was up here seemed to have a commitment and a very good perspective, where they come from, the type of experience they will add to the task force. so, that's who i would like to nominate, but let's listen to commissioner cohen and see if there is any consensus with anybody here. >> good afternoon, everyone.

just for the record, we've had 33 applicants for one position. that's pretty competitive. that's almost like my seat. there were 22 candidates for two supervisors. i understand the angst around it. here's what i like to hear. i look for equity, parity and diversity. i'm looking for someone who has demonstrated experience in work either volunteering or in a professional way and multi-ethnic communities, making sure that we're reaching everyone. now, i, too, share in the concern in making sure that there is diversity on the entire task force. that's why i ask the question, what's the complex -- what are we dealing with here? interestingly enough, i came to a similar conclusion to

supervisor yee and i said, yes, i think we should definitely support a woman seeing how there is an overwhelmingly large number of men that are on the board. however, what's interesting is i came to settle on helene wenzel as the name i'd like to put forward. i'd like to maybe propose bringing helene and moll back up and we can ask a few more follow-up questions and interview a little bit more and then we can make a decision from that point. that's if the chair will accept that compromise. >> no objection. supervisor breed? can helene and moll -- mollie. >> mollie come on up. i'm sorry. i see moll. >> it says m-o-l-l on our sheet. that's not your fault. got it.

>> sorry to put you two together like this. that's okay. >> do you guys know each other? yes. >> would you vouch for each other in terms of work? [laughter] >> i mean, we're looking for the best and obviously the strongest candidate. sometimes you can have two of the best. maybe you guys can offer something about each other that might help, help us make this decision. i know it's a little tough when -- i don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. if you're uncomfortable, just wink -- i can speak about myself. >> be my guest. say something about yourself. it's helene? yes, it's helene. as long as you didn't do helen, that's fine. no apologies. one of the things that i realize i didn't speak to, you did ask about diversity. and my clientele, quote-unquote, my clients are quite diverse. i spend a lot of time -- i had spent a lot of time in bayview

hunters point and visiting with people. just basically getting a feel for the full panoply of the people who live in san francisco. many of my clients are not lesbian, they're gayses, they are elderly. i've dealt with all of their family issues. i think i have from the black community, hispanic community, latino community, asian american as well. and i guess going back to, you know, the old days and this does speak to my being a senior . in fact, i kind of got outed by the b-a-r. it showed up on the internet. i'm 68. so, i probably trump you on that, but that's neither here nor there. what i do see, though, is really how important it is, you know, how gender and age and ethnicity and, if you will, wealth and lack thereof,

affects our people. and, you know, just going in to visit people in their homes and seeing the great diversity in san francisco and watching as the diversity is pushed further and further to the outlying areas. i happen to live around noe valley and i'm watching google take over. buses that transport people back and forth and i look at that and say much like what happened to the castro area, the older people who lived there got pushed out by gays. what happens' happening now is we're having a similar pushing out to the out skirts, people who are no longer young, who are no longer perhaps working, who are no longer breeding among other things, but who do need the kinds of services that i think this task force is, you know, brought together to speak to and address. ~ and as i said, i can bring new blood to this. i have not worked deeply in the political zone and i feel as

though i both missed something and avoided something. so, for my part at this time in my life, i'd like to take some of my time and put it toward that. i'm not about to retire, but i do want to change a little bit of the proportion of what i'm doing in terms of my work and my commitments. and from having been through you name it to women's rights, thea rights, the other rights, when i went back to school, to law school, i looked at it and i said, what is this elder law about? it seemed very interesting to me. and it has been a very rewarding choice of profession for me and of clientele. >> thank you. >> mollie? my career right now is really focused on senior aging issues and i would like to

bring together more closely lgbt senior aging issues into the community disability advocacy. we have one of the highest aging communities in the country in san francisco and we have one of the most represented lgbt communities as well, and yet we are so unrepresented in services for this community and it pains me to see this over and over again in my own agency we serve for seniors and disabled adults, and it's very, very hard to get -- to reach out to the lgbt community and make these services available. and i realize that firsthand when i was at open house how hard it was and it takes a tremendous amount of effort to reach out and build this

visibility, particularly in the old, old population that has been positive for much of their life. but even still, we have much to do to make the services friendly and available to the lgbt aging community. and i personally am -- i feel it on a personal level to bridge this professional work that i do with my own community that i see every day. so, this would be a very important contribution that i think i can make on the task force. >> thank you. >> thank you. supervisor breed, did you want to -- >> yes. i had a question for ms. steinert. the current -- where do you currently work? i work at stepping stone.

we're the largest provider of adult day health care in san francisco. it's directed towards full seniors and disabled adults. we have four centers in san francisco. we've been around for 30 years. we enable seniors to live independently in community when they get to a point where they have difficulty managing on their own. so, by coming to adult day health care every day, they are able to have their health care managed, get social connection with other people, and maintain independence, preventing going into skilled nursing homes too soon. >> it says -- it mentions serving low-income seniors -- [multiple voices] primarily because we're really focused on a medi-cal qualified population. but truthfully, we serve anyone who could also pay the private

pay rate. but primarily we're looking at low-income seniors. >> thank you. are you done with your questioning? thank you, ladies, appreciate it. i just wanted to make a few comments. just, of course, as we know, this is a really difficult decision. i definitely stand by my first decision of supporting mark burns. i know that -- and i was aware of the lack of women on this particular task force. but what was extremely important to me was, as i said before, someone who has a proven demonstrated track record of actually consistently working with the senior community in a capacity that is going to be necessary to help change the lives and how we do business here in san francisco

as we begin to serve and open the door to serve better the lgbt senior population. with that, i want to also say that i -- looks like my colleagues here definitely are interested in supporting a woman, which there, again, are two very capable women. and i think that ms. mollie steinert has also that track record based on her application, based on what i've heard here today. and, so, i'm prepared to be open minded about a suggest. so, i'll wait to hear from my colleagues on that and be willing to work out a compromise here. >> so, again, tough decision. both of you are well qualified. and even listening to your

comments to supervisor cohen's question didn't make it any easier. however, i still would like to support mollie in this. and when i listen to her speak about the issues, her passion for the issues just comes out. and the fact that she's been involved with these issues for many, many years tells me that there's a track record. and sometimes it's not about politics. sometimes it's not about other things. and for me it's really important that a person's passion in her work or his work is the number one priority for me. so, that would be my preference, though.

>> like i'm going to be outvoted here because i feel like my person, but -- >> me, too. [laughter] >> i have to make a decision here. we're trying to be as judicious and thoughtful about it as possible. so, i am comfortable supporting mollie steinert be recommended for seat 3. >> thank you. is there a motion to -- well, without any objections, can we move mollie steinert to serve on the task force? no objection? what is it, item is closed. thank you very much. (applause) >> okay, madam clerk, can you please call item number 2? >> item number 2, hearing to consider appointing three members, terms ending november

21, 2014, to the citizens' general obligation bond oversight committee. there are 3 seats and 8 applicants. >> okay, thank you. before we hear from the applicants, i would like to ask john givener from the city attorney's office to speak on seat number 2 and the qualifications for this seat. >> sure. john givener, deputy city attorney. so, the person appointed seat number 2 must be active in a labor organization. all of the -- there is an additional restriction on all three of the seats, which is the appointees to this body cannot be city employees or officers, and cannot be city vendors, contractors or perform work funded by city bonds. so, i understand the applicant for seat number 2 which one of the applicants for seat number 2 on today's agenda is a city

employee. so, that person could not be appointed to any of the three seats. >> okay, thank you. >> [inaudible] a clarify question. for the person retiring from local 21 who is vacating seat number 2, that person wasn't a city employee? >> i don't know. i don't know anything about the person who is currently holding seat number 2. but generally city employees -- sorry? generally city employees cannot be appointed to this body. >> so, maybe it seems to me -- i'm under the impression bob muscat who currently has the seat that is expiring is a city employee. so, i guess it's unclear to me, are we changing the rules or are we now enforcing them, is

it an oversight? what exactly? maybe he doesn't work for the city and i'm mistaken. >> i can't tell you about him personally. i wasn't involved in his appointment. i can tell you we're not changing the rules. this was a voter adopted measure in 2002, i believe, that set the qualifications for these positions and in that ballot measure, the voters restricted the city employees and officers could not hold these positions. >> okay. colleagues, can we move to continue consideration of seat 2 to the call of the chair? >> yes, so moved. >> any objections? seeing none, so moved. now we would be hearing from the applicants for seat number 1 and 3 in the order they appear in the agenda.

if kia omotalade. >> supervisor, sorry to interrupt, this is a technical thing. i recommend you rescind that vote and take all the votes on each of the seats, including the vote to continue seat number 2, after hearing public comment on the item. >> thank you very much. >> sorry about that. >> so -- >> i make a motion to rescind. >> seeing no objection, the vote is rescinded. okay. so, again, kia. hi, my name is [speaker not understood] and i'm here to speak for kia. she's unable to attend today due to work obligations. why i want to be on the committee. the committee is tasked with the following. review the controller service standards and benchmarks to ensure accuracy and usefulness. two, review all aid its to ensure they meet requirements set forth in the ordinance. 3, [speaker not understood] whistleblower hotline and their

disposition, and 4, when appropriate hold public hearings regarding results of benchmark studies and audits. [speaker not understood] robert h. jackson once said it is not the function of our government to keep citizens from failing into error. it's the function of the citizens to keep the government from falling into error. this is it one of the main reasons i have applied to the appointment to the committee. first and foremost, i am proud to be a resident of san francisco and i believe as such i have a civic duty to ensure the city is running a matter consistent with financial stability and economic stability. in both my professional and civic capacity, i am tired with doing many of the duties retired by the committee. currently i am employed at blue shield of california and in this role i am a senior program manager of accountable care organization. my [speaker not understood] of a manager of acos is to drive quality of care and [speaker not understood] and cost of

care indicators down. [speaker not understood]. and it is also to prepare blue shield of california for the influx of new members that will occur because of affordable care act. as part of my day to day role, i am constantly reviewing audits, budget, numbers, statistics, spending and utilizing trends and brainstorming with my team and individual hospitals and medical groups as a way to how we can deliver better care and a more cost-effective manner. i am trained as a lawyer and spent years practicing law and also serving as both a state and federal law clerk. these experiences have given me an eye to detail and an uncanny ability to review documents for accuracy and ask questions that need to be asked. i am the person to serve on this committee because of both my experience and desire to serve