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 plant as ceo and

when he started he did a phenomenal job in terms of our funding. they did a phenomenal job. as of september 1st, earl plant did resign as ceo and williams did step up and is acting as our interim ceo. one of our top priorities of the board of directors' currently as well as what will be for the incoming directors for the 2013-2014 -year will be a search for a replacement of mr. plant. that will be high in our priority. there are many different criteria items that we set last year when we were doing the search in the fall. it was very detail oriented. each candidate that we had went

through a very grueling process of couple of rounds, two or three rounds. it is something of concern and i understand supervisor campos of your concern, but it is something that pride board of directors' is and will continue to address until we find a suitable viable candidate for our ceo. >> related to the board of directors', president, the controllers assessment recommended the pride board fill all of the 15 seats that are allowed by the bylaws. i wonder if that recommendation has been followed or implemented? >> yeah, at the time of that report i believe it was 5 positions occupied at that time. currently at the time of our event this year there were 9 board of directors' positions being filled out of 15. for

upcoming we opened to 10 positions. the rational is that if there are any qualified candidates or possible board of directors' for later down the road, the board has the ability of appointing an individual into one of those open 5 positions. so, since 2010, since the report, we have had board members come on board with professional backgrounds. one good thing that i have seen great thing that i have seen in the last two 2 years on the board is that the turnover rate hasn't been as high as it's been in previous years. i know during difficult times and during certain circumstances people may come and go. however during the past 2 years, the board of directors' has been a little bit more stable. >> related to that question and

the issue of bylaws, my experience having worked with many organizations is that you can learn a lot about an organization by how the bylaws are followed and one of the things that, and that's actually something that was raised in the report as well. one of the things that we have read and in news outlets and of course you can't believe everything you read and which is i did i wanted to get clarity from you in this that there has been concern about pride's general membership that a current and updated copy of the bylaws for some reason as reported has been difficult to obtain and there are fear there are revisions to the bylaws by whether it's policy procedures, by staff and board members without really knowing that those are happening. i'm wondering if you can outline

how changes to the bylaws and policy and procedures are made? >> actually that's one of the questions i'm unable to answer at this time. the individual who would best and most likely be able to answer is unable to be with us today. >> okay. thank you, sir. one final question and i know that there may be others, is that when was the last annual performance on it that was performed of the organization, and wondering whether or not those results have been shared with the general membership or the public? >> in terms of our financials, our treasurer david curry is out of state. he's the one best able to answer the questions that you have regarding our finances in more detail. if we are able to come back, we are

able to provide that. there has been a lot of talk about our finances especially with the controllers report. i would like to add that pride has made great strides and achievements during the past two 1/2 years to come from a $225,000 deficit to a great surplus. we have about at least $50,000. we had projected $50,000 reserve and it might be a little close to $100,000. in the last year we have made great accomplishment towards our financial well being. >> i want to thank you for saying that because i do think a lot of credit needs to be due to pride for doing that and for staff for making that happen. congratulations on that accomplishment. supervisor yee?

>> thank you, chair, campos. the sf pride and celebration that goes on in san francisco goes beyond the lgbt committee in terms of myself taking a lot of prize that we -- pride that we have such a celebration going on in san francisco where it makes people that live in san francisco be proud of our city in terms of our diversity and our willingness to share that diversity. when i looked at this report i had concerns.

for me the most important thing what you just said that the organization went from a deficit organization to having a reserve because if nothing else, you couldn't get over that, it maybe the end of that celebration. so, and it's really important to have stable management and hopefully you will get there. even with this management this organization has been able to get in stride with this management. i'm going to give you on the board and anybody affiliated a lot of applause for being able to do that. there's a question about the audit and whether you know where the next audit is or not.

as a board member, when was the last time you saw an audit because i have sat on many non-profit boards and we always get, whenever it comes out, a copy of it. whether i look at it carefully or not is another question, but when was the last time board members received a financial audit? >> the last time i recall seeing a financial audit was the previous term, 2011-2012. i have not seen an audit in recent months. >> probably one of the things that could be done is even with that, if that's the most current, that's the most current. it would be good for your organization to send us a copy of that so we can look at it. i like to looked at audits. >> i can do that. in terms of

regarding finances i also wanted to add as an indicator of how well we did our finances. san francisco pride gave back to our community partners a number of grants, a record amount of $175,000 was given back to our community grant partners, the most ever as i mentioned. to have such a wonderful and prosperous past two 2 years has been wonderful. it's been instrumental and as president, i personally want to thank everyone who has been involved. it's taken all of us together to work diligently in producing this wonderful weekend event from our board to our staff to our contractors and especially our volunteers. so as president i thank them for contributing their efforts and time and dedication into

the financial well being. because it really did take all of us working diligently together to get where we are today. >> so, one other question would be in regards to your management staff or your ceo position, which is similar to the executive director, has the board done an analysis of what's causing the turnover and how you can prevent it? >> the departure of our recent ceo, we came together and we just acknowledged, we both acknowledged, both parties acknowledged that it was best to separate past. but no, we have not come together yet, he did resign september 1st. we have not come together yet to discuss what might have been the reasons or the causes of

his departure of separation. >> again, i have limited experience of 40 years of doing non-profits and a lot of times it's useful to do that analysis. because it could be the individual or the structure of the management team that you need to change to better match what needs to be done. >> that's definitely something that will be taken into consideration with the next search which is coming up very soon. so, thank you very much for your recommendation. >> thank you very much. and i think supervisor yee, you started when you were 3 years old. you said 40 years. i do want to turn to public comment, but before i do, i want to be very respectful. i see that the acting and i don't know what

the right term is or the director of ceo is here, lisa williams. i want to make sure that i give them an opportunity to say something if they would like to. just want to be respectful of that. would you like to say anything? no? i just want to make sure that i'm respectful. thank you. >> miss williams thank you for being here and i want to reiterate my graduate -- gratitude for being here and thank you for volunteer. the floor is yours. >> thank you. i just want to echo what david has said over the last 2 years in terms of the financing. a lot of folks came together to make sure we settled our debt and that we did and we paid off the doern

fund. we did increase the board and once we get passed that we'll be able to meet all the standards of the board. the one area he didn't speak to was the community advisory board. that help offset, such as legal, human resources and finances. i want to speak a little bit too about the change in management. we have had some consultant come talk to us about the governance and process. we've had three different consultants that meet with us, we continue to do board retreats. we'll work on that diligently and i think that we are headed in the right direction. another part of pride that really makes a huge fference is our

contractors. some of them are had are with us today. they play a huge role with many many years of service of pride that helps with the operations, our parade, exhibitors and they stick with us since day one for at least, some of you guys average 20 years. they have a lot of years. we also have legal council a long time with us. brook is here with us today and played a big role in supporting us during this time year. so i just want to thank you, i want to thank the community that came out. we know there is changes to community pride and we welcome it and thanks for the hearing. >> thank you very much, any other questions? why don't we turn it over to -- anything else? yes. >> did supervisor wiener have any questions that he would like to ask? that i may answer for you?

>> i don't have any questions that's been asked. whatever criticisms that others may have, i do want to acknowledge that over the last 2 years there has been a lot of work towards clearing the debt and turning around that problem and some other issues as well. i believe in giving credit where credit is due and i know that folks have worked very hard on that. i want to acknowledge that work and that success. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. now i'm going to read some speaker cards. each speaker has 3 minutes. i will read the speaker cards and if you please lineup to your right, audrey joseph, marsha lavn, andy

cupper hall. brook oliver. any member of the public who would like to speak, please lineup to your right and our left. >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is audrey joseph. i sit on the entertainment commission. that commission is the agency that issues the loud speaker permits for pride. to that end, i can say that they applied in a timely fashion and paid their bill in a timely fashion. i am also the main stage producer for san francisco pride. i wanted to introduce some of our contractors in case you had questions of prides that we are responsible for. so joe wagner, in the end is our event manager. he is in charge of all

of the logistic equipment procurement and life and safety services, he's also our main liaison for san francisco and fire and police, next to him is john anderson who works very closely with joe. next to him is richard kravtsz, he's or exhibitor manager. richard is responsible for bringing in the sizable amount of income through those booths. marsha lavp is here, she has extensive experience with pride. when i got here, she's been on the board. lucky gutierrez who is

our office manager. if you have any pointed questions that you need to direct, we are here to answer those questions for you. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner, and i certainly i know that i want to hear from as many of the vendors and contractors as possible. commissioner, in terms of your role, can you describe a little bit of what your role has been? >> well, my role as main stage producer is to develop a talent roster that is basically based in our community or in the lgbt community across the country, to present talent. it is very diverse, both with age, genre of entertainment, gender, ethnicity. i also work with marsha lavn to get celebrity

grand marshals who have done work in our community and i put together all of the logistics around the main stage area which both supervisors wiener and campos have been on. i have taken on city hall which is the vip party. i seek to find people that can answer questions about our community. this year we had roger williams that produced a film called "god loves uganda" and how they can be subjected for capital punishment simply for who they

are and we have accomplished so much in america with marriage and with dome an and we need to help more across the shores. >> my question to you is how do you think operationally staff wise, management wise how do you think it's doing, the organization? >> well, the organization brought in a lot of money this year. i think that it had a lot of reasons, one, the economy is improving, two, the marriage issue was a big deal. prop 8, this is the home where all that started. i do believe that the sponsors realized no matter how to decisions were going to go that this was going to be a million people in san francisco. so sponsors did come to us and i have reservations on how sponsor fulfillment was

done. i have received a bunch of phone calls from sponsors who were not pleased personally because i know them. operationally i wish the funds had come in sooner because i might have been able to procure talent early on. by the time the funds arrived, it was hard to book someone. they were already booked in other prides. but we that had litigants from pride that present stars as themselves. i act as a contractor and i make sure that pride understand that i'm an independent contractor and i'm not to be directed. although i -- confer with them, they usually give me my head although i wish they would give me more money. operationally, i was concerned about the executive director and concerned about the turnover of the executive directors and

concerned about lack of job descriptions within the office staff. so things run over and there is, you know, that had a lot to do with the executive director that the office staff was not managed in a good way. and they are, the office staff is my support staff. so that affected me in that way. >> thank you very much. why don't we get the next speaker. thank you very much, commissioner and thank you and all of the folks who have been serving this organization for so long. welcome. >> thank you. i'm going to apologize in advance for reading from my notes. my name is marsha lavn and i serve as the parade manager for san francisco pride. i love pride. how else can i explain 20 years of consecutive commitment to

pride proceeded with boston pride and a 31-year-old organization now boasting 250 international pride members. why would i want to be parade managers for 13 years if i did not love pride. especially after several years of volunteering and having trained three staff how to do so, where by stepping in twice at the last minute when others ditched and ran the 7-10 days before the event. at minimum of almost three decades of dedicated service of san francisco pride, two of those decades have been spent working on the parade alone. the only answer i have is i love pride especially san francisco pride. the parade and what they mean to this community is as well as the city of san francisco. i love the satanic purses and the

patent leather purse carrying people, i have loved the waves of p flags mother and father and daughters and the day when my parents were so far away. i love the church groups even though i'm jewish with their up lifting spirits. i have delighted in course with -- and dogs dressed in too toos. blessing showered by the two spirit nation people and coaches and drumming and the color guard of the latin men and women and the strutting to the hip hop beat to the african american community. a true representation of the san francisco melting pot is not

outside the san francisco pride. this year i was able to convince almost a hundred girl scouts and their leaders to participate in the parade for the first time ever possibly an international history. and the thank you notes i got that read dear pride parade if you for getting the girl scouts in the prooid parade this year. for me this is what pride parade means and some of the varieties each girl gave. helping me understand diversity in the lgbt world. pride acceptance. >> let me ask you a question. let me ask you to complete your statement. >> supporting the community, unity and growth, same sex marriage . san francisco pride

has been ever evolve but for it to continue to grow and continue to be the inspiration as i see it above, they must reinstate those process suggested in the controllers report. they need to improve accountability and other interested parties. conduct businesses with complete transparency as outlined in the documents. including best practices and exercise best resources before going to outside resources who have no knowledge or experience. there is a perceived threat of retribution or repercussions with regard to employment when stronger dissenting opinions or convictions based on experience are expressed. i would like this to be replaced with a

supportive dialogue between all parties. i want for leadership to realize that the above can create sadly a fearful environment and risk the overall productivity of the team. what if when frustrations when in proper procedures lapse in accountability and transparency and lack of communication and unfamiliarity with guidelines and policy were met head on without defensiveness and instead were resolved as a team? only together can we become whole and fix the cracks in the foundation. if we are open, honest, trusting and respectful or divided we will crash again and this time there might not be a phoenix resulting out of the ashes. >> can i ask a question. i want to make sure i get this right. you talk about how much you love pride but at some point you said that, are you leaving?

did i hear that right? >> i am on the fence about, i was. i was on the fence about whether i would be departing or not and that was based upon the continue of the recently past ceo because there were definitely difficulties work with him. now that he's been removed from the equation, be i'm open to continuing. >> okay. thank you. next speaker please, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> now i will read a few more names. joey cane, stanford. >> hello. i was the beverage manager from 2001-2012. i was

also the -- i want to also notice that last year they gave back to the community at least double what pride was and a much smaller event. i was at that organization for 11 years. i believe i'm in a strong position to comment on the delivery of large scale. i believe sf pride is in turmoil and lost it's direction. it is a ship through the night with no able captain. it's been at this position for the last 9 years and little has been done to save it. as the pride has gone with many great organizations and lost it's vision and pride. it's lost it's focus on the mission and tried for constituents. the lgbt community worldwide. throughout my tenure with sf pride i