>> good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to a special meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors neighborhood services and safety committee.

my name is david campos. i am chair of the committee. we are joined today by supervisor norman yee and the supervisor eric mar is in route and will be here shortly. the clerk of the committee is derek evans and we also want to thank the following members of sfgov-tv staff who are covering the meeting today. bill dylan and mark bunch. mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? >> thank you, mr. chair. please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. completed speaker cards and copies of documents to be included in the legislative file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the march 25th, 2014 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you very much. if you can please call the one item that we have on the agenda today. >> the item is the resolution urging state community college chancellor brice harris to restore the voice of san francisco voters and bring democratic decision-making, transparency, and public accountability back to city college of san francisco by restoring the duly elected board of trustees.

>> thank you very much. i want to begin by thanking the community of the city college of san francisco, beginning with the students, the faculty, and all of the san franciscans who benefit from this amazing institution. for almost 80 years the college has been an institution that in many respects represents, embodies what san francisco is about. for the past 78 years, city college of san francisco has been crucial to the economic and social development of san francisco and has been widely acknowledged not only to be a san francisco institution, but to be one of the best community colleges not just in the state, but in the country. city college, in my view -- and i say this as someone who is an immigrant who came to this

country in search of the american dream -- city college is making it possible for the american dream to remain alive for thousands and thousands of san franciscans. and it is for that reason that we are here today. today's special meeting of the neighborhood services and safety committee is devoted to the very important issue of bringing our community voice back to city college. we will vote on a resolution that i introduced, and that has been co-sponsored by a number of my colleagues, and i want to thank my colleagues beginning with supervisor yee who is on this committee, supervisor mar who will be joining us shortly, as well as supervisors avalos, wiener, kim, chiu, and cohen. the fact that a super majority of the board of supervisors is supporting this resolution gives you an indication of the importance of this institution.

it also provides an opportunity, it provides a forum, this hearing today, for the very first time in a very long time for the community of city college to have a place where they can speak about what's happening with their beloved institution. the fact is that for the last few months there hasn't been a forum for anyone who is connected to city college to be able to speak their mind and say what they think about what's happening today and about the future of city college. as a representative of district 9, which includes the incredible mission campus, i believe that i have a responsibility to ensure that my constituents not only in district 9 but in the entire city have the opportunity to provide their opinion about what's happening to this institution. this resolution is about the very basic principle that we live in a democracy and that in

a democracy, it should be the people of that democracy that decides the future of public institutions such as city college. it is predicated on the very basic principle that the voters of san francisco duly elected a board of trustees, that they entrusted that board of trustees with the ability to make decisions in an open, transparent way. and what we see today is that decisions are being made about not only the present, but more importantly the future of city college without any input from the public, without any say about whether a decision makes sense or not. and one of the best illustrations of that is what's happening around the payment policy. what was unilaterally changed by city college without, in my opinion, any consideration for what is in the best interest of the students. i have yet to hear a student who doesn't believe that they have an obligation to pay what

they owe. they want to be responsible, but they do want to have an opportunity to follow a reasonable payment plan that doesn't force them to leave school as it has for so many of our students, especially undocumented students. this hearing is critical because it sends a very clear message that the status quo is not working in city college. and the fact that so many people associated with this institution have been demonstrated for the last few months, it's an indication that something is amiss. what happened yesterday at the ocean campus and some of the issues that were raised about the conduct of the city college officials points to a lack of trust on the part of the city college community of this administration. and the only way for that trust to be regained is to bring accountability back, to bring the duly elected board of

trustees back to make decisions on behalf of the people who elected them. the resolution that i have before you does a number of things, and i want to specifically cite a couple of them. it calls that immediately -- fort meade restoration of the duly elected board of trustees so that they have a right ~ to convene, discuss, and make decisions about the future of this institution in an open and transparent forum ~ for the immediate it also calls for the restoration of the duly elected board of trustees immediately. we want to see it as soon as possible. (applause) besides the payment policy, we have also heard about the five-year education master plan

~, a document that lays out the future of city college, but unfortunately a document that was put together without meaningful community input. the process that was followed for community input was a very short process that didn't really give students, faculty, and anyone associated with city college a meaningful opportunity to have a say over what the priorities of the college should be. we ask that that master plan be put on hold until there is a meaningful, open, transparent, and inclusive process. we believe that at least a year so that that opportunity is presented to the people of san francisco is warranted. so, before we move forward, i want to give my colleagues an opportunity to say a few words. supervisor yee. >> thank you, chair campos. i want to -- i'm glad to be a coauthor of this resolution. as a former student at city

college and as a former instructor at city college for 10 years, and my wife continues to be an instructor of city college, i care about this institution as much as anybody in this room. and i want to acknowledge that we have -- our officially elected trustees in this room, john [speaker not understood], glad you're here to join the rest of us to see that this resolution gets passed so that we can reinstate you and the others on the board so that we can have a representation of the people that elected you to be there in the first place. so, i'm happy. i've seen many faces, many faces i've seen at other rallies and so forth. i see some new faces here today. so, as supervisor campos mentioned, the extent and

breadth of individuals that have come out to fight for our beloved institution, city college of san francisco, really shows you what this institution means to not only the students and the faculty, but for everybody in this city. when you talk to just about anybody in this city, whether they're a former student, a student now, a faculty, a former faculty, or people that may just have lived here, every single person will tell you, we want to have our city college back in the ownership of the people of san francisco. so, i'm looking forward to listening to your testimony today. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor. (applause) >> and thank you for your co-sponsorship. before we open it up to public comment, i really want to take this opportunity to give members of the board of trustees who are here -- and i know he that there are a number

outside ~ city hall. don rizzo, dr. anita greer, raphael mandel man, and shad nell williams. if they're here, i would like to give you an opportunity to come up ~ and please take the podium. i know that all of us would like to hear from you. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor yee. i'll be brief because we are here to hear -- we are here to hear from the community because the community has been shut out of the governance of city college and that's why we're here. i do want to thank all the co-sponsors of this resolution. what we see here parallels what we're seeing in michigan. i mentioned this before, but i really think it's worth repeating. in addition, in michigan, in addition to the right wing policies of voter suppression

and elimination of women's rights, they have a law called the american [speaker not understood] manager law which does exactly what's been done here. the elected representatives are removed, a manager makes decisions in the dark. and what we see in michigan isn't leading to better management, it is leading to worse management. we are seeing the signs of that here. some really poor management decisions have been made. the board of trustees left the district with the budget surplus of several million dollars in june. just a few weeks before they were removed last july. management has taken that budget surplus and squandered it and we are looking at a $23 million deficit, $23 million, because they have not done their job of student recruitment. this is a job that every publicly managed community college and school district

does, universities do it, recruitment. they are not doing it. they are failing. they are also making bad management decisions in pay as student fees, supervisor campos mentioned. but pay raises. these pay raises have been given, double digit pay raises in the time of budget deficit, were made in violation of the district's own policies. this is not -- this is not a way to get accredited by violating your own policies to give managers double digit raises. some administrators are being paid now more than administrators have ever been paid before at city college. finally, what happened yesterday, the use of force against students has never happened before at city college in the 77-year history. (applause)

>> district funds were spent to bring out san francisco police to use force against students. this was a really poor management decision. and whatever else you can say about it, it shows -- it makes the point that supervisor campos is making here, that without oversight by the public, there is no accountability in the management. the students need to protest because there is no forum, there are no board of trustees meetings. so, the only outlet students have is to protest, to try to get their point across. (applause) >> leadership -- what they don't understand, the value of democracy and the value of public oversight, it's that leadership and management learned from the public. it learns what the public wants. it learns what the public

needs. it gets ideas from the communities. the board of supervisors know that. the school board knows that. the state legislature knows that. and we know that is true with city college. so, i thank you very much for working to get public ownership, public oversight of city college back. thank you. (applause) >> thank you, sir. we will now hear from dr. greer. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much for this much needed bill that we will pass. i just would like to thank everyone who is here today. it is so wonderful to be here to hear your voices and togive real input from experience. so, i'm going to be brief and i hope that the letter that i had written just tells everything i feel, everything i think up to now. and we want to move forward from that position. (applause)

>> i just want to make three points, and they have already been made, but i just would like to add just a little bit of more information to it. and look at the pros and cons. if we look at what's happening now with the administrators that are at city college, the pros is that we -- well, if we had the faculty staff and students, we would have recruitment that we know how to do. we would have more students coming to city college and we would even do better in a time of crisis with trying to increase the enrollment number. what you have on the other side is that you have a group of administrators who don't have the leadership, do not have the experience to go out, recruit, and bring students back to city

college. if we talk about the $500,000 that have been given to the group to make sure that they do better recruitment, if our faculty -- if our staff had that amount of money, we would reach the highest number that we've ever had in terms of enrollment. (applause) >> what has happened so far is that the monies that have been given to the administrators has not gone for good. i think it's even gotten worse. i didn't bring the numbers, but the last time i heard the numbers were even lower than what we know. we also have students who are complaining about the closure of classes. we have departments -- appliance-026-7041 ~ (applause) >> we have departments who are talking about how the students are there, but for some reason

they're making it so difficult for students to stay there and then also to increase the numbers. it seems like there is something going on that we need to stop. and with this new resolution that would do it. these people need to go. also, the board of trustees, which is a board of 7, compared to a super trustee and the number of one, i mean, how ridiculous is it to have a board meeting with one person? [laughter] (applause) >> it's undemocratic, it's unbelievable. and, in fact, students in terms of the demonstrations that they have done want to be heard and they always were heard when there was a board of 7 compared to a board of one. we really need to get the board of 7 back so that we can do our job.

plus our student trustee. (applause) >> also, the master plan. i was only at the meeting in chinatown for a short period of time, but it is so like this group of -- i would call them the t word, but i won't. these groups that come together and talk about a master plan that doesn't include the community, that doesn't hear the voices from everyone in the city and county of san francisco. it's ludicrous, it's ridiculous. and, so, this is what you have with the one super trustee. i say all that to say that we need to pass the resolution that supervisor campos and the rest of the board of

supervisors has put forward so we can go about the business of educating at city college. that's what we're known for and once this bill is passed i'm sure we'll be able to get back and do our job. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. i know that trustee mandel man could not be here for this portion of the proceedings, but we he want to thank him for his leadership as well ~. i saw chanel williams earlier, i don't know if she's here. but why don't we begin public comment. and let me say that normally i give people three he minutes, but we he might lose a quorum so i'm going to limit it to two minutes so everyone here has the opportunity to say something. and before i begin, i also want to acknowledge besides the students, a very important player in all of this has been the faculty at city college. [cheering and applauding]

a i just want to -- i want to acknowledge their dedication and their commitment ~ and their perseverance. so, i want to read a few names. please, as i read your name, if you can come up. and if you can line up to our left, your right on the aisle. vivian munn. harry burstein. judith [speaker not understood]. and i apologize for mispronouncing your name. edgar torres. emilie lee. tiffany louie. vincent yu. lee levitt. alan benjamin. angel van stark. robert fitch. go ahead, please. thank you. go ahead. my name is vivian munn and this is the first time i'm speaking in front of city hall

and board of supervisors. i'm a little nervous, but i am i faculty member and i work at disabled student services department. i'm here today to speak in support of this proposition. i mean, thank you for introducing this piece of legislation. we he need to bring back our elected board of a officials, trustees, in making decisions that will affect the success and well-being of our students ~. i'm surprised to hear what jon lee wrote just now, disclosed about the budget mismanagement and the 23 million. what i do know is that, you know he, we have a whole bunch of highly compensated administrators and the college has hired exorbitant vendors to do a certain amount of thing. but speaking from a person who is down in the trenches, i'm a direct service provider to my students. i teach a special class to students of disabilities. and the students who come to my

class learn study skills to help them succeed in college. what really upsets me is that the people who are a special trustee, he he doesn't understand what's going on in my class. he doesn't understand what's going on in my job. when my staff leaves -- i have 8 that help me. when they leave, they are not replaced and that's a cut. is my time up? >> no. so, i'm upset that, you know, there is no input. there is no way to -- for me to let the administrator know that, look, i'm losing students here. i'm not serving my students. it's crippling -- i'm crippled in my job, in my ability to do my job because i don't have the staff because they are not -- we are not being allowed to [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. once you hear the initial sound

that means you have about 30 seconds left. thank you. next speaker, please. (applause) yes, my name is harry bernstein. i'm an instructor, part-time instructor at the ocean campus in music. i just wanted to address one small point in your measure. you say that the super trustee has been in charge of appropriating funds from two voter-approved bonds to build a performing arts and education center. but without accountability to the will of san francisco taxpayers, there has been a citizens bond oversight committee for these 2001-2005 bonds since at least 2006 with an annual report. intention of the committee is to verify the voter mandated bond money is distributed and

spent as the voters wanted. in 2012, the much needed performing arts and education center was close to final approval when it was delayed by two interim chancellorses and finally either suspended or canceled by super trustee ar dwell a ~. that's $50 million from the bond money and about $38 million in state matching funds. ar gel a has said his mind is made up on this so, where is the bond oversight committee ~? here is my point. city college financial officer ron gerhardt recently acknowledged that the committee couldn't meet a quorum call because it had nine vacancies. that's the oversight of the monies from the city of san francisco. how convenient for ar dwell a who is therefore spending the allocated money for purposes not approved by the bond measures. we need an action and investigation of this and return this oversight so the money is spent properly and we get this facility. (applause) >> thank you.

i have a few more names. carol meager. roger scott. anna azavedo. rose buyers, and sarah thompson. my name is [speaker not understood] levitt [speaker not understood]. i am a retired teacher from the school district and i'm representing my former students, many of whom can't be here today. they went to work or they're at classes at city college. and i want you to know this is an invaluable project that we are working on and i'm a part of the same city college movement and i'm also a union retired division activist. ~ save city college i want to say we must have the immediate restoration of the elected board of trustees and request immediate removal of special trustee ar dwell a. and i urge the legislators, mayor lee, and the remaining

board of supervisors, all of them, to join supervisor campos in reversing this current queue day tau. we are in a democracy. thank you. (applause) ~ >> thank you. i just want to note that we have been joined by supervisor mar who is the vice-chair of the committee who is also a co-sponsor of the resolution. next speaker, please. my name is edgar torres and i represent the department of latino studies as well as the diversity collaborative. and i just want to let you know that the department chair structure is constantly under attack. it is attacked when we're -- as i speak. we are asking 21 chairs to be reduced to what are going to be called discipline coordinators. what you have to know about the department chairs and in particular the diversity chairs is that we were created out of a profound [speaker not understood] community. and that we try to give