tv [untitled] September 19, 2013 3:30pm-4:01pm PDT
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necessarily concentrating our homeless population in shelters that are concentrated in a particular area. san francisco is a big place. there are a lot of other opportunities throughout our city. and, so, i would like us to try and explore where there are more appropriate places for families to be on a temporary basis as it relates to shelters because these are -- for example, the kids at first friendship are going to school every day and there are no facilities. so, where are they taking showers? where are they able to take care of their hygiene? the kinds of impacts that happen as a result of even being in a shelter i'm sure is already challenging enough for these young people. but to not have the ability to take care of yourself could be
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even more devastating. so, i want to figure out a way that we can do a better job at making sure that we are really focusing on the families, especially the children that are getting up every single morning and going to school in our city. so, thank you all so much, and i appreciate the fact that this report will always be posted in a timely manner in the near future from this point forward. thanks. >> thank you. ~ supervisor cohen. again, can i have a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair? >> so moved. >> second? motion by consensus, moved. [gavel] >> madam clerk, can we have item number 6? >> item number 6, hearing to consider appointing two members, terms ending november 23, 2014, to the shelter monitoring committee. there are two seats and three
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applicants. >> thank you. we will now hear from the applicants in the order they are listed on the agenda. ms. amanda reichmuth. hello, my name is amanda reichmuth. i currently work as a victim advocate with the district attorney's office. but in my background i used to work at hamilton family residences, which is the biggest family shelter, and i was there as a case manager. so, i have a lot of firsthand experience working with folks within shelter and being familiar with the shelter monitoring committee in the capacity that they were coming to visit us and to see how we were meeting with those standards of care. for the past five years i've worked between there, also with [speaker not understood] and rosalie house which i know are not shelters covered by this, but other experiences i've had in seeing how shelters can work
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effectively and where there is room for improvement. also in my work, la casa de las madras, [speaker not understood] received all the referrals from residency directly from the city shelters. i also experienced working with people who come directly from the shelters and hearing how i experience [speaker not understood]. and having people on the brink of being evicted for caring for going back into that system. so, i'm very familiar with the workings of the shelter system and i'm interested in being part of this in order to assist the shelters in maintaining the standards of care and working on making sure that those standards of care are really what we need and want for both families and single adults who are -- who are without housing in our city.
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and where we have set up for them to stay are those places that allow them to move forward if that's something that they're ready to do, that they have access to case management, they have access to those services. though the housing is difficult to find, but if they're working toward it that there are people to help them with that and they have a safe and clean place to stay. thank you. >> any questions? seeing none, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next one is liz pocock. hi again, supervisors. thank you. my name is liz pocock. i'm the director of housing development and asset management at episcopal community services. as was discussed during the shelter monitoring committee report, ecs has 5 34 of the 1100 shelter beds in the city.
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we're the largest shelter provider ~. and actually i don't actually work in the shelter division of ecs. i work with the asset management and housing development side. we work very closely in permanent supportive housing with clients who are coming straight from the shelters. whether they're single adults or families. i have been working in supportive and affordable housing for 14 years, 8 of them here in san francisco, and i've been at ecs for the last four years. part of my role at ecs is working very closely with our property management and support services on our permanent supportive housing sites. we have three that we own and five that are leased through the housing first s-r-o master lease program, and they're very different. our newest problem, 134 units
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of permanent supportive housing for single adults, bishop health community house, is really what i like to think of as the shining example of what permanent supportive housing and housing people coming from chronic homelessness, coming from the shelters should be. a lot of the s-r-os in our master lease program are more challenging buildings. they're old. they are not owned by us as joyce kerr mentioned. and part of the -- the part of the job that i really enjoy is going into those buildings and trying to raise the bar on the standards of the facilities and the operations to make it more efficient and make it better for the clients and the residents. and i would like to bring that to the shelter monitoring committee, although i do think that amanda seems like a very good qualified candidate as well. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much.
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next up is tony faataui. i do not see tony. so, at this point i would like to see if there are any public comments on this. come on up. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is cathy [speaker not understood] and i am the director of shelters for episcopal community services. and a has been mentioned previously, next door has 334 beds and sanctuary has 200 beds so we hold 5 34 ~ beds. what i'll say in the short three years that i've acted as director is that both the
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shelters that i manage are buildings with -- that are really -- we struggle to provide decent, clean, safe housing, but they're really buildings that weren't made for folks to live in. that being said, i would recommend liz with her background in asset management and development, that i think she would bring a focus and expertise on not only the client staff that she deals with. the same clients that need supportive housing, but also she has a focus on building the physical plant. and i think that's something that's needed on the monitoring committee. i think that she would bring solutions to all of the various shelters that she would be doing work through and inspecting. so, i would recommend both candidates are great candidates. i would recommend liz pocock. thank you.
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>> thank you. these are some of my concerns. i just -- one, we have to make sure we have someone that's going to be dedicated to the shelter monitoring committee and, you know, you're given a position where it's like a full-time job. and you don't really even get paid to like travel back and forth to your inspections. so, that's one thing. but then i'm also hoping we can find someone that understands the history of the legislation that comes from that body and basically just the history of the shelters. and i think the other problem is we're running into a problem because i think the legislation said that you're supposed to have the shelters reflect the
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ethnic diversity of -- the ethnic numbers of the shelter. and right now i went to the shelter monitoring committee and i didn't see any black people. the shelter -- the local homeless coordinating board appointed a black person, but i don't know if she's [speaker not understood] seating, but the board of supervisors hasn't appointed -- i don't think they have a black person sitting on there. so, you have a 50% population of black people in the shelter system and one or no people in the shelter monitoring committee. so, to me it's a major problem and violation of the legislation creating the shelter monitoring committee. so, those are some of my concerns. >> thank you for pointing out your concerns. >> mr. chair, i'd like to just speak to the speaker. you've come up here at least
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four times and spoke on different various item. you know what's really helpful is solutions. you identified problems. it's okay to be critical. certainly we're used to that. but solutions, you talk about lack of an african-american representative. so the next step in my mind is you furnishing this body or the monitoring committee with a name of qualified people. we're looking for action steps to help make things better. you were concerned about the posting of the report. that's a very valid concern. certainly supervisor breed shared that concern. so, your level of criticism is helpful in continuing to help us better our best. but in order for us to also get better, this is a team effort. if you see something or you find a person that you think is good and solid, you should be making these recommendations.
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and when you find a problem it's most helpful also when you have a solution to go with it or a suggested course of action to help us bridge that gap. i think i'll say that i do have -- i do have ideas and solutions and philosophies regarding how to make the shelter systems better. but one, i just feel like this might be the first body that i've stood in front of that might have the political will or desire to implement some type of change in the system. so, i mean, i do have ideas regarding solutions. some of my solutions are i think we really need to get towards maybe a psychological evaluation of the people that they hire so that they don't get traumatized when they come into the shelter system. another thing is i think we need to look at the san francisco hot team and consider some of the programs that
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they've done and then try to implement them into the shelter systems because -- and i think some of it just goes to the philosophy of what we're doing. i think we need to really share [speaker not understood] of the philosophy we're going to warehouse somebody until they die or stuff them in an s-r-o. i feel like then do we empower the homeless to own houses or start their own businesses? >> okay, thank you. thank you for your public comment. [speaker not understood]. your last meeting of the rules committee you did appoint [speaker not understood] freeman to seat 6 who was african-american. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> was there a reason why -- didn't we get a call from tony?
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~ whether or not he was interested in this or why he isn't here today? >> mr. chair, applicant tony faataui was contacted but we never received a response from him whether or not he would be able to attend today's meeting. >> thank you very much. i have another question. both amanda and liz indicated seat 4. would they qualify for seat 5? i think the difference is one of them is for advocacy organization. nominating, another one is -- >> if i may. the qualifications for seat 5 are the person must be select from candidates nominated by nonprofit and provides advocacy in organizing services to homeless people and also must
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be homeless or formerly homeless. >> okay. so, i assume, then, both of them don't qualify for seat 5. >> mr. chair? >> yes. >> may i make a suggestion? ask the applicants whether or not they qualify for seat 5? >> that's why i was looking out there. applicants? no, okay. okay, so, we're going to have to consider two people for seat 4 and i guess we're going to have to continue 5. we don't have an applicant for seat 5. okay, any thoughts? you had to make it real hard on us. both of you are great. i personally think both of you are great. that's why i was looking for a way to maybe see if one of you would qualify for the other -- on seat 5.
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>> [inaudible]. >> this is terrible. >> maybe we should bring them up and do a rochambeau. >> you can come on up to the mic and go ahead. keith [speaker not understood] again, vice-chair [speaker not understood] shelter monitoring committee. we were just speaking back there. the local homeless coordinating board seat 3 is available. ms. pocock has said she would be willing to go to that and try to get on in that area and then you're free -- does that make your decision any easier? >> it does. [laughter] i'm glad i could help. >> that will be for next time. it wouldn't be for this time. >> so, seat 3 will be vacant? seat 3 local homeless coordinating board is vacant. she resigned last week so we
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have an empty seat there. so, ms. pocock can go down there and apply and -- >> when we bring it up for our agenda -- [speaker not understood]. >> next time, some other time. it wouldn't be through this body. local homeless coordinating board. >> okay, got it. then we have seat 5 available. >> okay, i'm clear. so, thank you very much for being so accommodating. >> so, with that i'm -- thank you for that because it is really hard to make a decision when you really truly are equally supportive of both candidates and i think they both would bring something excellent to the table. so, i am happy to recommend amanda for seat 4 and continue
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seat 5 for now. >> okay. >> i'll second that motion, please. >> good. can we take that -- consensus, the motion is moved. [gavel] >> thank you very much. this brings us to item number 8, madam clerk. >> item number 8, resolution amending the terms of existing local agency formation commission (lafco) positions by expanding the scope of services for the senior program officer, extending the term of employment for an additional three years, and utilizing the existing lafco budget to continue funding this position. >> okay. [speaker not understood] legislative aid for [speaker not understood] to speak on this matter [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, supervisors. a long day. [speaker not understood] with supervisor john avalos' office. what we have before you today is a resolution that was introduced at the request of the local agency formation commission, lafco, and which supervisor avalos is the chair
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of. also what you are getting right now is an amended version of the resolution. it's just to correct some sort of grammatical and formatting errors we have. so, minor changes, but they should be highlighted for you. in essence, this resolution, something the lafco requested of the board of supervisors to make some changes to the staffing structure, lafco currently has three positions. executive officer position, a senior community development specialist, and a community development assistant position. this resolution seeks to consolidate two of those positions. and the reason for that is over the past few years lafco has been primarily focused on implementation of the community choice aggregation, or cta program. but now as we're kind of moving, sort of moving forward with that, with cleanpowersf, it's required a lot less staff time to monitor and to implement, you know, to attend
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to. so, as a result, lafco through its own processes determined that it will be a little more cost-effective to consolidate the executive officer position with the senior community development specialist position because, you know, it's substantively very similar work and the position can accommodate for that work. and not only that, but the executive officer position currently is being filled on an interim basis anyway by the legal council. so, it kind of makes sense to just have the senior officer kind of take over those duties. and this consolidation wouldn't change the fact that she's still the legal counsel for [speaker not understood] it will bring those two upper level positions together. so, what we're hoping today is for -- it was unanimously supported for this urging resolution to come to the board. we're hoping that not only will
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you accept the amendments, but also recommend this resolution. i'm happy to answer any questions you have and we also have clerk staff here to answer any technical questions you may have. >> i have a question. >> supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much. good to see you, frances. you said we're consolidating two positions into one, right? this is a senior community development executive number 2 with interim executive officer. do we currently have two people filling these separate positions? >> we do, we have one full-time staff person who is fielding the senior community development specialist and we have an interim officer which is basically lafco's legal counsel. >> and that person is in sacramento? >> no, she comes down here for -- i'm not sure where she's based, but she has her meetings -- >> maybe deborah can speak to that [speaker not understood]. i'm just trying to better understand. so, is there a loss of job? >> no, she'll be the legal
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counsel. >> she is to be the legal counsel. >> right. it's duplicative work right now because, you know, the senior development specialist sits in on subtantively all the same meetings. it just used to be that with the cca program, when it was -- earlier it required a lot more staff monitoring, staff dedicated attention which is why that senior community development specialist position was created. but now a lot of that cleanpowersf has moved over to the puc and really we're just doing monitoring, you know, staff time has freed up a great deal and they would be able to accommodate the tasks [speaker not understood]. >> what were they doing if the puc is taking over the lion's share of the function? >> they will be staffing lafco and lafco has, you know, a whole slate of work that they can determine on how they want
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to operate. lafco doesn't do cca. they've done special studies for us. [multiple voices] >> so, we've got a person who is the interim executive director who is also serving as general counsel; is that correct? >> yes. >> and then we have someone who is the senior community development specialist, is that correct? >> correct. >> we're looking to merge the executive officer and the senior community development specialist? >> in essence what we're really doing is expanding the scope of what the senior community development specialist position can do. because when it was created by the board, that position was only allowed to work on cca related projects. >> does this expansion have a cost to it? >> no, it will be a cost savings. >> a cost savings. >> right. would you like me to explain why? >> yes, please explain why this is [speaker not understood]. >> [speaker not understood] from the clerk's office.
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the costs will come in with the lower billable hours from the counsel that is currently serving as the executive officer. >> i see. have you cost out what that savings is, a dollar figure? >> we spend about $70,000 a year for her services currently, and i can create a breakdown of what services are [speaker not understood] legal counsel versus the executive officer duties by going through the invoices if you'd like. >> all right, thank you. thank you, those are all the questions i have. >> supervisor cohen, that is a good question, the cost savings. do you know if this particular resolution is going through the budget committee? [speaker not understood] to ask that question, or is it coming here? >> it's just coming here because the change to the scope of the position.
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it doesn't go through the -- their budget doesn't go through budget, lafco's budget. >> okay. >> so, we're changing the scope. it's changing from what to what? that's just unclear to me. ~ in the resolution language. >> so, what it does in the resolution is refers to the previous resolutions that created this senior community development position. and in that, there is actual language saying that that position can only work on cca or, you know, cleanpowersf projects. that position is restricted solely to that. so, what we would be doing is expanding that to allow them to do everything that that classification would like to do. city-wide, for example, that classification can take on a number of duties. but when we created it here at the board, we restricted of those many, many duties what that position could do. so what we're doing is just
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kind of removing those restrictions to allow them to do the full scope of work. among that full scope of work is duties that an executive officer would do. >> and with the evaluation process that currently exists for the lafco employee -- do you understand? what i'm saying is you work, you have a job, you have -- some people have a 360 evaluation as to whether or not they're meeting their mark. as an employee i'm curious to know is there an evaluation process for this position? i mean, the person goes to work every single day. i evaluate my staff, you know. you possibly go through an evaluation. it's pretty standard. lafco is an interesting agency and it has an interesting structure -- [multiple voices] >> exactly. that's my question. i'll trying to better understand, we're expanding scope change and i want to know
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if there are built-in mechanism to evaluate the performance [speaker not understood]. you sit on lafco, right? [laughter] >> this position actually also serves at the pleasure of the lafco commissioners. >> right. >> because it's a limited scope. it's not a civil service position. it's extended by contract. so, even this is included, federal contract extension -- >> even in the contract it tells you -- in terms of the contract, this is how you will perform your duty, this is how you were evaluated. i don't know. commissioner breed? >> well, i don't know. [laughter] >> i know there's a contract, but isn't the person in the position of city employee? or is he a contract employee? >> he is a union member, but he is on contract by lafco.
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so, in essence, lafco could set those up. so, as a commission, if you want to determine your scope of work includes this and that you want to set those standards, that's what the [speaker not understood]. >> so, would there be a problem with postponing this item to the next full committee in order to provide sometime for clear communication as to what this really means? because there is definitely seems to be a number of questions ~ and in in that particular casey wasn't completely clear how that works in terms of the evaluation process and what happens. i'm new to lafco. >> lafco would set that up. >> it's currently not set up, right? not that i'm aware of, because it's not on the -- >> ultimately, even so, lafco would have -- you would have your own, you know, ability to set that up. you could request that in the
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next agenda on the lafco agenda and you could set that up. >> i wish to support this, the motion supervisor breed made about continuing this item, mr. chair. >> so, here's my thought. there is confusion with how this is written. and my interpretation of this and it is right or wrong, it needs to be reworded. my interpretation is that there currently are three positions defined, correct? >> um-hm. >> and what we're trying to do -- and they're not full-time positions, are they? >> they are. >> they are. so, what we're trying to do is create a new definition of an existing position so that we end up with how many positions? >> we would -- it's not exactly accurate. what we're actually doing is
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removing the restriction that the board placed on the commutev development specialist position. so, when the board created that position, they said, you can only work on lafco. so, technically the current person who fills that position is operating outside of his scope because he has been doing special studies that the lafco commission has requested of him, which was on split banking, on [speaker not understood] voting -- >> can i clarify special that were outside of scope. he is not doing the work directly. he is finding people to do the work, that we're paying to do the work of these studies. >> yes and no. these are not necessarily studies that are contracted out. but you are directing -- >> i was told that they were all studies that were contracted out, that he basically helps with the process and finds the appropriate
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