there are so many ways that the internet provides real access to real people and resources and that's what we're try to go accomplish. >> i was interested in technology like video production. it's interesting, you get to create your own work and it reflects what you feel about saying things so it gives perspective on issues. >> we work really hard to develop very in depth content, but if they don't have a venue, they do not have a way to show us, then this work is only staying here inside and nobody knows the brilliance and the amazing work that the students

are doing. >> the term has changed over time from a very basic who has a computer and who doesn't have a computer to now who has access to the internet, especially high speed internet, as well as the skills and the knowledge to use those tools effectively. . >> the city is charged with coming up with digital inclusion. the department of telecommunications put together a 15 member san francisco tech connect task force. we want the digital inclusion program to make sure we address the needs of underserved vulnerable communities, not communities that are already very tech savvy. we are here to provide a, b and c to the seniors. a stands for access. b stands for basic skills and c stands for content. and unless we have all three, the monolingual chinese seniors are never going to be able to

use the computer or the internet. >> a lot of the barrier is knowledge. people don't know that these computers are available to them, plus they don't know what is useful. >> there are so many businesses in the bay area that are constantly retiring their computer equipment that's perfectly good for home use. computers and internet access are helping everybody in the community and people who don't have it can come to us to help with that. one of the biggest problems we see isn't whether people can get computers through programs like ours, but whether they can understand why they need a computer. really the biggest issue we are facing today is helping people understand the value of having a computer. >> immediately they would say can i afford a computer? i don't speak any english. how do i use it. then they will start to learn how to do email or how to go back to chinese newspaper to read all the chinese newspaper. >> a lot of the barrier still is around lack of knowledge or

confusion or intimidation and not having people in their peer network who use computers in their lives. >> the important thing i learned from caminos was to improve myself personally. when i first came to caminos, i didn't know anything about computers. the second thing is i have become -- i have made some great achievements as an individual in my family and in things of the world. >> it's a real issue of self-empowerment where new immigrant families are able to communicate with their families at home, able to receive news and information in their own home language, really become more and more connected with the world as well as connected even inside their local communities. >> if we value the diversity of our city and we value our diverse neighborhoods in the city, we need to ensure that they remain economically viable.

equiping them and equiping residents in those areas with jobs that will enable them to stay in san francisco is critical to that. >> the important thing that i see here at caminos is it helps the low income community, it helps the women who wouldn't have this opportunity otherwise. >> the workers with more education in san francisco are more likely to be able to working that knowledge sector. where they are going to need that familiarity with the internet, they are going to find value with it and use it and be productive with it every day. and half of the city's population that's in the other boat is disconnected from all that potential prosperity. >> we really need to promote content and provide applications that are really relevant to people's lives here. so a lot of the inspiration, especially among the immigrant community, we see is communications with people from their home country but we as much want to use the internet as a tool for people to connect within the local san francisco community. >> i think it's our job as

public educators to give them this access and give them this opportunity to see that their efforts are being appreciated beyond their immediate reach. >> you have to blend this idea of community network with computer equipment with training and with support. we can pull all that together, then we've got it. >> it's as much about social and economic justice -- in fact it's more about social and economic justice than just good afternoon, everyone and welcome to the board of supervisors neighborhood services and safety committee. my name is david campos. we are joined by norman yee and eric mar will be excused and today

we have been joined by supervisor scott wiener. i want to acknowledge the clerk of the committee, derrick evans as well as the following members of the sfgtv staff. thank you for covering this meeting. jessie larson, jenny low. >> mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? >> please make sure to silence all cell phones and speak are cards should be submitted to the clerk. items are on the board of supervisors agenda. >> before we begin i would like to entertain a motion to excuse supervisor mar. motioned by supervisor wiener. >> please call item no. 1. item 1: agenda[hearing - fiscal and operational state of san francisco pride]1308331.sponsors: campos; wienerhearing on san francisco pride's fiscal and governance

shortcomings as outlined in the 2010 memorandum from the office of the controller, steps taken to resolve said shortcomings and the current state of the san francisco pride organization. 9/3/13; received and assigned to the neighborhood services and safety committee. >> please call item no. 1. item 1: agenda[hearing - fiscal and operational state of san francisco pride]1308331.sponsors: campos; wienerhearing on san francisco pride's fiscal and governance shortcomings as outlined in the 2010 memorandum from the office of the controller, steps taken to resolve said shortcomings and the current state of the san francisco pride organization. 9/3/13; received and assigned to the neighborhood services and safety >> please call item no. 1. item 1: agenda[hearing - fiscal and operational state of san francisco pride]1308331.sponsors: campos; wienerhearing on san francisco pride's fiscal and governance shortcomings as outlined in the 2010 memorandum from the office of the controller, steps taken to resolve said shortcomings and the current state of the san francisco pride organization. 9/3/13; received and assigned to the neighborhood services and safety committee. >> 1241234 >> great. thank you very much. i would like to thank my cosponsor, supervisor wean -- wiener. thank you for that. before this i would like to make a brief statement to give my colleagues an opportunity to say something as well. san francisco lgbt pride is something that many of us in our community care about. the fact that there are so many people in this room and wafg -- watching and had so many participating. it's one of the best known pride events in the world. last years, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world attended and

celebrated the event especially in light of the supreme court's ruling on same sex marriage on the marriage act. the mission of san francisco lesbian gay bisexual transgender committee so commemorate the world, heritage and community and celebrate culture and liberate their people. the non-profit organization that has been running pride through its mission through a yearly parade as well as a 2-day event held here at the civic center plaza the last week in june. the city and the people of the san francisco are appreciative of the fact that this event means so much to our community and the city provides this organization in this event with

a general support grant of about $60,000, as well as allowing the event to use facilities like the city owns lie city hall, civic center plaza. the city among other things shuts down market streets and waves permitting fees for this organization. proceeds for this event are meant to be shared among san francisco non-profits that serve the lgbt community. non-profits that support the hiv community or provide breast cancer awareness services. as you maybe aware in 2010 at that time i was a relatively new member of the board of supervisors. supervisor ben do and i were approached by the

lgbt community because of concerns that were raised because of the operation of this committee and this organization. in response to that, we asked the city comptroller ben rowsen field to perform an assessment of pride as an organization and the idea behind this assessment was to understand what the challenges were that were facing that organization so that we as a city could have a better understanding of how to better assist that organization. that the controllers office viewed all of pride's book and information and successful for providing the opportunity in a very open way. that assessment found that as sf pride had both

70s -- fiscal and govern nanz, a $25,000 deficit and no assets and despite hiring a fundraiser at the time their inability to meet those objectives. in terms of issues of governance, those included a board at the time that didn't fund raise nor saw the the organization and failed only 5 of it's 15 allowable positions at the time. the controller also found inconsistent methodology, out of date contracts and oral agreements with partners such as sponsors and beverage sellers. non-compliance with city non-profit monitoring

standards were also found including things like not performing regular up to date audits and using plans and balance sheets that did not conform to accounting principles. a lot has happened since then and a lot has been said about pride and both supervisor wiener and i thought it was important for us, given the importance of this event to revisit the implementation of the audit and assessment by the controller. we also wanted to provide a form for pride as an organization to not only give us an update on how it's doing relati -- relative to that implementation of assessment and how things are going and to provide for the opportunity for the community to have a forum

for issues around the controller support or anything relating to pride as an organization could be raised. it's also a forum that allows people that have been involved in the organization including some of the vendors that have been participating for many years to share any thoughts our comments they may have about the organization. i see this hearing as a positive development. it's an opportunity to have an honest conversation and an opportunity to give pride and also support for many of the advancements and improvement for this support. it's not a goch ka committee. it's about providing support for this hearing. my office has communicated with the director about this hearing and the fact that this hearing will be taking place. we announced that there will be a

hearing a few months back before the summer and i know that communications that we tried to reach out to inform them of when this hearing would happen. if at any point there is a sense -- or a need by pride to have additional opportunity to provide more information, we are happy to do that and to have a follow up hearing to make sure that any information, any additional formation in terms of complooints -- compliance with the report to provide that information. with that, i will turn it over to supervisor wiener. >> thank you, supervisor campos. thank you for your leadership. even from before i was on the board of supervisors around pride and making sure that this amazing and unique community institution is strong

and sustain able and meeting our city's needs. i think it's important to just stress how critical pride weekend and the pride parade and festival are to san francisco culturally to the lgbt community but frankly to the city as a whole. this parade and this festival belong to no one except for the people of san francisco. no one has more ownership of this parade than anyone else. it belongs to all of us, so when making decisions about pride, we have to be sure and back up and evaluate what is best for this parade and festival in terms of the needs of all of san francisco. i also want to acknowledge there are many

people both volunteers and contractors, employees who have worked very very hard for many years to keep this parade and this festival going. although we have had some disagreements and criticisms, i really just want to acknowledge the many people who make this parade and festival such a great success year in and year out. i remember from 2011, after i took office when there was a lot of pressing concern around the finances of the organization, being competent that whatever happens with the controversy at the time, i was still competent that the parade would still happen because there are so many dedicated contractors and employers and volunteers who make it happen. that was reassuring because he

is the in incredibly important for the city. with all that said, i also think it's important to always look with a critical eye at the governance structure and pride and continually evaluate whether that structure is what makes the most sense for the delivery of this parade and festival. over the last few years, supervisor campos and i in speaking with one voice have questions whether the current governance structure makes the most sense for the organization. i try to keep an open mind about that but i think it's an important discussion for us to have. so i hope that will be part of the conversation today and going forward. so i look forward to the hearing today and i want to thank supervisor campos for his leadership. >> thank you very much supervisor wiener. again thank you and your office for the

work that you have done on this important matter as well. i think it's important that the lgbt members of this board as much as possible when it comes to issues of importance to the community that we speak with one voice. with that, let me ask our controller and we are here happy to see peg stevenson to provide a brief overview of the assessment and the work they have done. and again, we want to thank the controller for the very expeditious way in which they responded to the request for this review. >> thank you supervisors, good afternoon. i'm peg stevenson from the controllers office. this review was done at the request at the time from supervisor campos and supervisor dealt oh, i believe. it is pretty dated, it was issued in december of 2010. there is more than 2 years

worth of results between then and now. supervisor campos already summed uppermost of what i would remind anybody about the content of the report at the time. they were showing $225,000 debt and a closing balance and no operating reserve at the time. we documentation as supervisor mentioned of their contracts. the board had not been doing fund raising or holding a finance committee to review audit results or some of the activities that you would expect from a well functioning non-profit board and they had a -- there was no director. our recommendation fell into line with those findings that they make a big investment in fund raising and recruitment of the board and result of the debt issues and get back to having

an operating reserve and cash -- on hand. the city standard to that are applicable here just to remind everybody. my office coordinates a program where we monitor non-profits that typically have contracts with more than one city agency and are of a significant size. i think it's now $200,000 more than sf city. sf pride doesn't fall into that category and just because of the size of the grant that had been received to it. we are happy to take a look at non-profits at the request of board members and use of city standards to view them. the balance sheet errors that supervisor campos refers to come from our non-profit guidelines which are on the website. the requirement that there be a coastal indication plan and a current financial audit and these are all applied

to the non-profits that we have contracts with. the last thing i would say is that our work is very dated. i took a look at it in the last couple of days, the approval of the last meetings that i read in the budget certainly signature re -- significant recruitment to the board in 1990, the 2011 posted on the website and they refer on their documents to have cleared the deficit and having cash -- on hand. i can confirm that we have not done any work or revisited any of their finances. i hope that's helpful. >> great, thank you very much; miss stevenson. colleagues do we have any questions of our controller? no questions of our controller. i would like to at this point provide an opportunity to sf pride to come

up and make any statement or presentation and because of the rules how they govern, usually these presentations are limited to the 3-minute public comment period which in this case i would like to allow for 3 minutes for on this item and if there is an opportunity, if there is a need to expand on it, we will go ahead and ask you questions to make sure that you have that opportunity. i would like to begin by introducing the newly pointed president of the board of directors' and i know that we have been joined by other members of the board as well as the acting executive director and i want to begin by saying this: that i am appreciative of the time that people like you put into this event. this

is a volunteer effort and whatever we may think about specific issues, i think that we always have to recognize the service that goes into this. i'm grateful for that and again i want to thank you for being here and if there is nor discussion, we can follow-up again. >> good afternoon supervisor campos, supervisor yee, supervisor wiener and miss stevenson. good afternoon my fellow colleagues. for those of who may not know, for the past 19 years i have been involved with the pride organization. first in 1994 where i was elected to serve on the board of directors' in which i served two terms and during those two terms i filled in many

different capacity including acting as the secretary of the board of directors' and the parade cochair. after my stint on the board, i remained active with the organization and for the last 17 years, i along with jay grech am have been cochairs of the committee to feed the volunteers on the weekend of the event. many of you are probably the recipient of one of our lunches. 2 years ago i came back to the board of directors' and in 2011 hoping to bring my experience and stability and wisdom to the board of directors'. we made great strides throughout the last couple years towards making pride a very solvent and financially sound organization.

so, unfortunately not all my fellow board of directors' are able to join us today and i do express their regrets to you. we did have 3 days notice to prepare for this hearing, thus i may not have all the information or the answers that you are seeking. therefore we may ask for a continuance of this hearing for future date in certain areas. however, having said that, i am here this afternoon to troo -- try to provide as many answers and respond to questions that i'm capable of. those who may not know that since 2011 identify been serving as board i have been serving as vice-president and as of last week i have been serving as the president of the board. >> thank you, mr. president. the one thing i would say in

reference to the notice, my office has been in contact with your then executive director for weeks and we have left a number of messages about the fact that a hearing would be held in early september. so i just want to be very clear about that. this is not something where 3 days ago we decided to have a hearing. this is something where we announced that there would be a hearing before the summer and we have communicated through pride through the existing structure which is you talk to the duly appointed executive director and that's what we've tried to do. i want to be very clear about that. that said, the extent to additional opportunity to speak and that

is needed we are happy to provide that opportunity. i also want to note as distinguished by this report by miss stevenson, this is a resort that -- report that came out in 2010. the issues have been the subject of discussion for quite some time. we understand and we want to give you an opportunity to present and we don't expect very specific delineation of the things that you have done. but i think that 3 years after an audit and assessment comes out, it would be appropriate to have a general discussion about that. >> anything else, mr. president? >> no, i'm perfectly willing to answer any questions. >> well, i do want to make sure that i let supervisor wiener and everyone else. i do have a couple of questions if i may and i want to limit the

questions so that we can turn to public comment and i also know that you have been joined here by the acting executive director, the general council, i want to make sure if anyone wants to say something that they have that opportunity. but generally it is connected to the report because one of the things that the report as a general matter recommended was that the rebuilding of senior management at pride, that was a very important recommendation and one of the things that concerns me and i'm wondering if you have any thoughts about this, is that you hired an executive director last year. we learned very recently that the executive director has already left the organization. i think he was there for only

10 months. that means that this is the third executive director that pride has had in just a few years. to me, not just as a supervisor but as a resident, that raises concerns. i'm wondering if you can speak to that in terms of what that means in your future executive director search because if you have that much turnover, that creates problems for any organization. >> sure. since this report came out almost 3 years ago, we had twoen credible individuals who served in the leadership of the management leadership of pride. the first was better than -- brin an and binge ham and he saw us through the 2011

production and he then became our executive director and through his leadership we were able to make great strides towards achieving many of our goals especially in terms of our finance. we had operational deficit and luckily we were able to make quite a good dent in repaying and getting our funds back to where it should be and where we would hope to be. regret fully brin an left the organization last year and what we decided to do is do a nationwide search for not replacing an executive director but a chief executive officer and through a national search of a few months we found and select earl