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 witnessed many

directors come and go and spent the manuality of the time focused on internal squabbling. for a successful and safe event should be their priority. celebrating our culture and liberating our people are all parts of the pride. however squabbling is a quandary i'm sure many are left with. the only reason they are left with what is is the dedication of the contractors involved. theyen insured the events were a success with the diversity and uneducated board. without these contractors, sf pride would not have happened. it is fundamentally parented to me they are on the board for their own political gain. they are

not paying attention for an organization they should be caring about. being on the board by one's responsibility, if they can not meet the standards. they should not be in office. this highest job possible -- it appears to the the epitome of in ineptism. it's not looking at the basic qualifications of the job in hiring qualified people. the policies and procedures contradictory and not acknowledged and known about. >> i would ask you to finish your statement. >> thank you. there been no efforts to reform any of it's practices and become more

responsive to the community. it has less by a style activist board and one would know a community of transparency would be embodied with activism. yes, it is this board is very self-serving. i have always said this organization should be run as a business. this community as a whole is looked after. these events are multimillion revenue generators. how sf pride can run into this is reprehensible. the deficiency of sf pride is highlighted by the controllers office as noted. it appears little or nothing has been address. this is absolutely despicable and shows the lack of care by the board of directors'. the board of directors' seem to ignore any

advice and on their way through. they are not meeting the values they claim to represent. public trust is important to organizations particularly non-organizations. over the last number of years it is clearly visible that this has been eroded. sf pride has unfortunately become the laughingstock of all event side worldwide. it's lose the public trust. what is needed now is to rebuild great ship and relaunch it to repair it's once grandeur. this be guileless me. the lgbt community should be the proudest event and show case to the world. i think it's possible to get there but major and fundamental changes are needed. i believe in the pride.

i hope these will come to fruition and 1 day my daughter and future gengz will be able to see this event as something to be proud of. what i may is one solution to have a team that will be responsible and help restore the confidence. this needs a new advisory board. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> my name is brook oliver. i resigned this year. i declined an opportunity to run for the board of directors' of san francisco pride also to maintain my independence. i'm

unexperienced nob profit general -- council for dikes on bikes and a great deal of my practice focuses on major event production. this san francisco pride, i would like to provide some of my own personal opinions and analysis of san francisco pride. the board of directors' has not asked me for my analysis and so i'm going to provide it had are in public. there has been a tremendous amount of care and attention devoted to raising the money and getting out of that deficit. lisa williams is entitled to great thanks and respect for having do that. i personally was with her night after night until 1 or 2:00 a.m. watching her reconstruct that organization and try to put into place the controllers

recommendation so i think what mr. copper said is unfair and possibly devoted to maybe some self interest in trying to get san francisco pride over into his organization. i don't know that for sure, but i think there is no other non-profit organization in san francisco that could sustain the efforts and time and resources that are necessary to produce and event of a million people. i think the problem with san francisco pride is a deficit of standards and a deficit of being able and willing to accept less than the very best. when this event was going on and i was a child in arizona, gay, lesbian, what the hell am i and i saw san francisco pride. it made a difference to me, san francisco pride is like the golden bridge. it's an institution. i would like to know that in los angeles where it runs and event

of 60,000 people in a city of los angeles is far more supportive than san francisco is to san francisco pride. i would like to note that the mayor's office of los angeles -- is that 3 minutes? the mayor's office of los angeles did an economic impact report of expo an event of 50,000 people and determined it has an economic impact of $100 million in the year. the city of san francisco has never done an impact report of the impact of san francisco pride in the city of san francisco i would estimate that subject -- substantially the city should do that. >> let me ask you a question if you can finish your statement. technicality i need to ask you a question so you can continue.

>> okay. the city of san francisco in light of probably the $500-800 million to san francisco pride in any 3-year period should be providing more funding to san francisco pride than the mere $4,000 it provides. in los angeles, the los angeles convention and visitors bureau which is now called los angeles inc. provides a tremendous amount of support to anime expo in coordinating hotel rooms so anime elk possess get several thousand dollars from hotel rooms because it fills hotel rooms in downtown los angeles and during their event. that is true for san francisco pride and the city could be more supportive and in material ways

and in material support to san francisco pride. a lot of the lack of standards is because pride hepatitis been -- hasn't been able to afford things and the city could do better to pride and building that engine that lgbt represents. as to forcing a merger, things like that, any merger would have to be approved by the attorney general. it's above the pay grid of the san francisco. i hope it will not be part of the agenda. i have shared words with them in the past. it's not inappropriate for the city to be dealing with merger of different project non-profit organizations. as to the street

permit, certainly you can use your power to not provide street permits to this non-profit organization, but what i suggest instead is that you attach requirements to giving a street permanent that would address your concerns about governance. as for govpance -- governance, the bylaws have not be reviewed since 1998. they are unclear and need to be revised. the hiring policies are for an organization that should be able in a city with the level of talent in the lgbt community that we have here and with the size of the event that is comparable to the olympics, san francisco pride should be able to have the very best and the very brightest on its board and

it's staff. we are not getting those kind of applicants . it's because the board and the staff are subject to horrible criticism in the press and shouting matches from the community. nobody wants to volunteer to go through that. i certainly don't. so there needs to be a measure of civility instilled in the process that this forum allows us which i'm grateful for. there is not a shouting match going on. hopefully in this forum and thank you for having us. we can have a civil dialogue even though it's monologue from the mic. thank you so much for having this hearing. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> hi, thank you again for having this hearing. i really appreciate it. my name is glen make henny. i'm an lgbt historian but i happen to be on

the parade committee since 1977-1984 and ran to becoming cochair in 1982 and marsha lavn and recently i met with a group of us ex-cochairs that all know each other. i recently met with celeste who is the 1978 cochair and day of who the the 1981 cochair. we are all concerned about what's happening with pride and we are very happy that the hearings are happening and that you are calling them. they couldn't attend this one, so i'm only representing myself, not everyone, but there are group of cochairs that would come if there are further hearings and if any

institutional memory is needed. there was a fight, changing of the guard in 1980 and 81 where there was a complete turnover of the parade and we basically kicked the old cochairs out and formed the new committee which is the committee that exist today. so there has been a history of strife within the parade and we very sad to hear that this is not working out. we believe this is the first year we received co-tax funding. there is funding that came from the mayor's office from the 77 parade but the first year we got hold tax funding was in 1978. if you take an approximate figure of $20,000, that's $700,000 that the city has given the parade

committee over the years. i do feel there is an interest in the city in these hearings in looking these over. thank you for hopefully opening it up and if i can answer any questions and i can come back, i think it's important for the community to hear about these hearings. thank you. >> thank you very much. i have another speaker card. keenan. >> good afternoon, neighborhood services and safety. i have a song. [singing]

>> all the way to the city. out on the marching road with you. all the way down market city hall with you. it's fine and we are going to have a good time. the pride is high, and you are having smiling having fun and good luck with item no. 1. number 1. i know you are not the kind of city that gives up just like that. oh no. and the pride is high and you are smiling marching having fun and good luck with item no. 1. number 1.

>> good luck. thanks. >> thank you, mr. paulson. next speaker. hard act to follow. >> don't worry, i'm up to it. i have followed him before at other hearings. >> my name is joey cane and former president of the pride of board of directors'. i have recently been serving on the advisory board until i stopped getting invited to those meetings and i was part of the group that chose the recent director. i have a number of points that address the issues of compliant with the stated policies and procedures. let me give you copies of this because i don't know if i'm going to be able to read all of this during

this hearing and i made three copies. i only made one set of the attachments. as a couple of statements that i would like to make in response to things that have been said earlier. there's some statement that pride opened the number of board seats to 10. in fact they shut it down from at least 12 down to 10 at a meeting that happened less than 2 weeks before the upcoming general membership meeting. brandon be han did not just leave pride. he was in effect fired. if 5 years the pride committee has had four executive directors starting with lindsey jones and andrea and now earl plant. i want to correct that bit of information. i also want to state there has been a lot of

-- about the fact that there is nine board members. there were only six board members who were involved in choosing the new ceo and that is less than a year ago. i would like to then turn to and say how much of the testimony i have given you is written testimony. this has to do with my encounter with pride trying to get basic things like documents, policies and procedures minutes, so i will just highlight what i have got here because you have the full report. the first item has to do that i requested the policies and procedures back in may. i got the documents in june 30th and los -- later on august 3rd, i got the information from plant that said as you are aware that i gotd the policies and procedures. i'm told this is a

problem that lingers from your organization. we are attempting to rectify this situation. i left the organization in 2007. while i dispute the claim that the problem emanate from my long tenure. this shows a deeper problem with the management of pride. if the organization has operated without clear policy and procedures it demonstrates a lack of governance. on may 21st meeting minutes from november 2012 from the president and on may 29, i was informed that the board minutes were available but she would need to do some research to find january. to date i have only received

february, march and april may and june minutes and only june draft of minutes. this is a problem because there is a lot of claims being made about revised policies and procedures and there seems to be no trail in the minutes and the board minutes of these changes being affected. again i haven't seen the board minutes. two planning meetings in may and august of 2013 were canceled and only one was rescheduled. these meetings are mandated by the corporation's bylaws and set boo i the approval of annual ship of the meeting. i was e-mailed on july 30th stating that first resolution adopted by the membership, pride's board has the right to reschedule the meeting when the interest of the organization so

dictates. i have not been able to find any meetings of the organization that verifies this claim. then he e-mailed me on august 3rd that did face resolution which is ratified by members that gives pride membership meetings. i have no minutes that substantiate these claims. i was given a copy of the bylaws back in early june which were reported to me presented to me as the most up to date policies and procedures and board bylaws. another issue is the membership sign up switched from an online application to a system whenever the form had to be printed out and submitted to the office. this happened at a time and the people that were critical in handling this were signing up as board members.

they claimed the membership system had been hacked. no report has been issued or any sort of follow up. at the july 2013 pride members meeting which opened the process for nominating candidates for the board election, sf pride leadership was not able to tell the members how many seats were up for election. clearly violating the laws and policies. this is a continual lack of the understanding of the bylaws and the organization. that is obviously very trouble. at the september 3, 2013, board meeting, learn lest than 2 weeks before the annual meeting of the board election, the directors change the number of board seats from 12 to 10. it was at 15. the

previous standing rule stated a third of the board members that had previously been elected had to stand at election. in the case of a fraction, you end up with a fraction, the previous standing rules say the numbers had to be rounded up at this meeting last week. this has changed to round to the nearest whole numbers who stand for election. there is relevant document in the attachment i gave you. finally board president lisa williams stated that the organization policies and procedures was a reason that they had to -- relay chelsey manning as this year grand -- marshall in this

parade. the policies clearly states they are authorized to a point up to three. i have provided relevant document. i have one short closing. i think a lot of the issues about problems with keeping good executive directors is the board is not properly trained on its relationship with the executive director. i think from what i understand, the board hasn't even been trained on its own decision making process. this seems to be almost no training on best board practices and i think that is something that could go a long way towards solving the problems. >> thank you, next speaker and i have another speaker card and i apologize for mispronouncing it. >> good afternoon. my name is joe virginia. i'm a candidate

on the upcoming board of directors' elections for pride. i was also a community grand marshall last year and for the past 15 years i have cohosted and produced with donna sash e for the resource center and i have board experience with past president and 5 years as chairman and served on various boards from the lgbt human rights commission to the hiv aids planning council. my intent today is to not make anything personal. in fact i don't know most of the people on the board of directors'. my criticism of the day is to shed like on the governance of trying to offer my help to the organization. in no means do i want any of our hearings saying

that sf pride should be turned over to any governing body. i feel it's perfectly based as a non-profit organization and should remain as such. joe king, had listed have of my issues that i have. i would say that while i applaud everybody who volunteers, the bulk of the work as most know is by the contractors and staff limited ats it is is lucky to have lucky and a few dedicated people. i don't feel earl plant was the appropriate ceo and i'm glad that he's sense resigned. i feel the current board of directors' is very difficult to work with, not transparent and not accountable. i advise and there may be a large meeting and asked that they get a larger room and they did not and we ended up with a fiasco

because they locked out a hundred people outside of their offices. all 4 candidates for the board were invited, none of the five incumbents had the courtesy to respond to the invitation and none attended. if you take the 5 incumbence of two you have a perfect slate of people, 5 incumbents and two new people the board authorized. i was a witness to this saying this was 12 seats to 10 seats. the excuse of saying we want to receive 5 seats to take advantage of the people to put on the board later. it doesn't fly with me. >> may i ask you a question. we

don't want to lose a quorum of the committee. i'm going to ask you to wrap up. >> i would just say that i'm thrilled that the finances are in better shape but there are many people that feel disenfranchised with the community. what you have heard is what the community has been dealing with for 5 months in getting short answers and not a lot of accountability. i hope the hearings continue. we have more information to bring and after elections we have more information to bring to you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon supervisors.

i have been out spoken about the celebrations here and new york city sense the late 1990s. at the members meeting the members passed a set of resolution asking for the board to comply with procedures. i took extensive notes at that meeting and since the board has not provided any minutes up to date i posted my own notes. based on these notes, on the several resolutions were ignored. the members were to post the updated procedures within a week of that meeting. they have still not been posted. they were set to set out candidate statements. these were not sent out according to the timeline and the