come before us previously and we have encouraged in the past people to come back and that there are two supervisors who also support ms. wilson, i will support that motion. >> so, without any objection, motion passes. [gavel] >> so, thank you very much for coming today. so, madam clerk, item number -- what is it >> 4. >> item number 4 is a hearing to consider appointing one member, term ending january 1, 2019, to the elections commission. there is one vacant seat and two applicants. >> okay. there are two applicants. so, applicant number one,

dominic ryan paris, would you -- >> good afternoon. do you have any starting questions or shall i just go into my spiel? would you still have faith in our american democracy if your vote didn't count? this is actually the question that got me interested in elections and voting during 2000. we all know it happened in florida, but what really isn't known is that 4 to 6 million votes were lost during that election, not due to fraud or anything, but just plain old mistakes. this sadly makes the united states rank 25th out of 73 countries as far as electoral integrity. should you choose to appoint me electoral integrity is my top priority for serving on the elections commission. i have a proficient knowledge of voting systems and as well as electoral good processes, best practices.

i've done this through working for the center for election science helping small organizations adopt better voting systems and use better practices. i also have my second public policy masters is focused on elections and voting. an emphasis in comparative public policy which really has helped as i have worked for elections in three separate jurisdictions in two different states plus an on-site review in puerto rico. that being said, i have worked in capacities ranging from the lowest level of poll worker all the way to full-time elections staff. that includes clerk, judge, inspector, poll worker, trainer, ride along coordinator, field tech and office staff which ranges in duties from redrawing precincts to processing early registration voters. so, as i said before, my primary goal is to make sure that an election integrity maintains. just yesterday a federal court ruling paysv the way for oppressive voter id laws in both arizona and kansas. so, the threat to our elections

is real. san francisco and california are pretty clean, but we do need to maintain our vigilance to make sure there are no threats to our city and county. any questions? ~ paves >> supervisor tang. >> sure,ly ask this of all candidates. but if you can speak to some of the goals that you have if you were to serve on this commission ~. >> yes, thank you. integrity is a very general goal, but it is the number one priority. if any outside influences do try to threaten the electoral integrity, i do think that is our duty or my personal goal to fight it and the oppressive voter id law is a perfect example. more specifically, continuing with the election commission, i really want to work on poll worker training. we already do have a good program, but they are our front line defense and are essentially judge, jury and executioner on election day. there are thousands of them and yet only a few dozen full-time

electoral staff. they need better training. they're doing a good job, but we can always use more. and if you throw some money our way, knock knock, i would love to create a poll mobile, an idea stolen from san mateo county that would be used for voter outreach and education during the off season and during the elections could be used to drive as an emergency polling place provided a location is thev open, the owner doesn't open up, there is inclement weather and the roof has collapsed, whatever, it would be quite excellent and provided the supervisors give us the scope, perhaps even lobby our state assemblymen and senators for better election laws. just a whisper thing. >> thank you very much. >> any other questions? >> no. >> thank you for your consideration. >> okay. next applicant is christopher

jerdonek. >> supervisor yee, supervisor campos and supervisor tang, my name is chris jerdonek. as you know i am applying for the elections commission. thank you for considering me. to give you some background about myself, i have lived in san francisco for over eight years, first in district 9 and then district 8. i received a ph.d. in mathematics from u.c. davis in 2005 and moved to san francisco shortly after that. in 2007 i started working as a software developer for a company called granicus which i believe you are all familiar with. they specialize in government transparency, expanding citizen access to government information. for example, san francisco uses granicus to streamline government meetings. i worked there for 6-1/2 years until last november to start working on my own software idea. i have also been active in the open source software community throughout that time. in addition to my software work, i have been active in election and voting integrity issues for over 10 years.

while living in davis, i advised the city appointed body called the davis governance task force and was recommended by them for my valuable contributions. ~ on election issues. in san francisco i have been appointed [speaker not understood] inspector two times starting in the june 2006 election. i have attended many election commission meeting over the years here. iest mate over a dozen. i have provided advice to the commission on things how we can improve manual audits and how we can improve the [speaker not understood] results. [speaker not understood] procedures on multiple occasions in san francisco and i have written software to analyze san francisco's rank choice voting data. san francisco is very fortunate to have an independent citizen body to oversee the administration of its electionses. i'd like to give back to san francisco by serving on this body, making sure we stay abreast of current technologies and making sure we have goodie lebanontionxes overall.

~ good elections overall. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor tang? >> yes, i'd ask the same question i asked of the previous candidate. if you were to serve on the commission, what are some of the goals you'd like to achieve? >> well, in addition to making sure that elections run smoothly overall, i'd like to make sure we maintain good relationship with the secretary of state's office and also make sure that we continue to improve our audit procedures and reporting procedures. but most importantly, i think as you all know, the equipment that we have in san francisco is getting very old. and i think our contract may be up in a couple years. so, i want to be very sure that we spend -- if we need to spend more money that we spend it wisely. and because we have a very unique situation in san francisco with respect to rank choice voting, i want to make sure that any new equipment that we get has all the capabilities we need and that there are no issues with the certification process at the state and federal levels. >> okay. thank you very much.

any public comments on this item? come on up. good afternoon, honorable supervisors. [laughter] >> time's up. wow, thank you. i will try and make my comments a little brief anyway. my name is roger [speaker not understood], i'm a resident of san francisco. i'm here to speak in support of chris jerdonek's appointment to the seat. i also sent a letter in that you may have received. my credentials, just to establish sort of some background here, is i started working in [speaker not understood] 2004. i worked nine times on election here, an elections deputy as well as inspector. i served on the san francisco voting systems task force which was completed in 2011, appointed by the board of supervisors. and i continue to work on voting, system and voting

integrity issues personally. so, about ten years ago is when i started getting involved with this. i met chris at an elections commission meeting around 2005. so, i've known him for 10 years. [speaker not understood] for different reasons, we got to know each other and actually learned from one another. and in that time i object severed somebody who is very considerate. he had a lot of good comments and input to the election commission and his information that he provided was well thought out and very well researched. in terms of where the elections commission is at, the ec was of course created due to some poor election management and poor election issues. over the time we've had john arnst for most of that period and he's proved to be a capable administrator. he's also a very trusted and has proved to be very good at executing [speaker not understood]. however, in the next few years we're going to be looking at getting new voting equipment as

well as things like internet voting is going to be a threat to our current hard card voting. and, so, we need somebody on there to replace the current veterans. gerard gleason who is leaving the seat who had been there 10 years was an advocate for the people of san francisco and the newer people i think are used to john arnst and how he does elections and [speaker not understood] problems to be solved. i think chris understands the issues [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. good afternoon. my name is sean robello and i'm here to speak on behalf of dominic paris's candidacy. [speaker not understood] while you've been able to get an idea from his speaking and application material, his academic qualifications, his hands on experience administering elections. i thought i would be able to share some insight into kind of dominic in action and dominic, you know, the citizen worker. he and i both belong to a

running club here in san francisco where he has been the executive director of our annual fund-raising race where we ray money for local charities. while it may seem like i'm drawing the line to get from there to elections, what i can tell you is as executive director of this race dominic has had to supervise and train a wide variety of volunteers, people of varying competencies and experience. he's had to coordinate them well in advance of a big day which the calendar was counting down not unlike an election. he's had to rollup his sleeves, he's had to show up early in the pre-dawn hours to make sure everything is up and running correctly, sheik in with a variety of people at different location and see to it execution is done as well as possible because when it comes to race day or election day, you really only get one chance to do it right. so, in addition to the master's degree, the work on electionses, i know him as a very dedicated member of the san francisco community. he's been actively involved in a variety of nonprofits and charities and i see him as a

organizer, coordinator and importantly which i think every community needs, a voter advocate. not someone who is going to look at it from the perspective of managing the election and the process, but is going to come into meetings with the interests of the voter in mind, wanting them to have access and make sure that their voices are heard and that they have confidence and faith in the system. not simply that it works, but that people understand that it works and they believe in it and want to come and cast their votes. that's all i have. thank you. >> thank you. hi, good afternoon. my name is girard gleason, i'm the person who va v-8ed the seat that you're looking to fill. i wrote a letter to you, but i just wanted to come down here. as i said, i took the position seriously, [speaker not understood], over 130 meetings. i just wanted to come down and again endorse the idea of having chris jerdonek appointed to the elections commission. chris has come to than a dozen

meetings. he's given useful and important information to the election commission. but what i want to stress more importantly is a lot of people come to public meeting and give input. he stepped up to the plate more than a dozen times to be a poll worker. i do that, too. and i think that's really important is you can give input but when you can get out there and see how the service for voters works, i just think that's a really important thing to consider. as i mentioned, i work for the department of elections. i handle the [speaker not understood] production and information pamphlet. i thought i knew baseball inside elections. last nine electionses, i worked at sutro. i worked more sitting there seeing the voters come to me ~. i think that's what chris brings to this, too. i think the issue of the macro and the micro, and i think chris adds to that. i'd appreciate if you consider his application. thank you. >> thank you.

hi, i'm dr. darlene hall and i am here to speak on behalf of dominic paris' nomination to the committee. i'm known dome anything for 6, 7 years and i'm also in the same running club ~ dominic. but [speaker not understood], i'm a psychologist. [speaker not understood] expertise is voting election and he educated me on approaching voter election and taught me a lot of things >> aye. i don't know. [speaker not understood]. to more formal work around [speaker not understood] the different electionses in districts as well as people he talked to about the program [speaker not understood] master program that would actually help to support the formal side of learning, about all of this work to allow you to kind of back up the work he did you on the ground.

i'm definitely seen his commitment and passion and i'm also someone who is very active and grassroots level in san francisco, both personally as well as through my work. and i see he the same passion and dedication through him around trying to bring help, [speaker not understood]. and, you know, he's a few years younger than i am. [speaker not understood]. he can also bring to the committee is a connection with young people and more technologies and other thing that may also be coming down the line in terms of what may be happening around voting election. so, thank you. >> thank you. any other public comments? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel] >> supervisor tang. >> thank you. i want to thank all the candidates for expressing your interest in serving on electionses commission. it certainly is a very important body here in san francisco. and i think that we have seen no shortage of enthusiasm from both candidates.

today i will say that i would like to support the applicant chris jerdonek for this commission. we cross tabs ten years ago and he -- i credit him for explaining to me technically how rank choice voting works, an even more complicated system than here in san francisco. also, i think that when you look at the spread of the electionses commission, i do believe that he really brings forth a technical expertise that is really important. mr. gleason in his letter to us also stated that, you know, it's -- there's a differentiation between electionses campaignses and policy versus ~ the actual administration of elections. and i think that's really important and something that i do believe that mr. jerdonek would be able to bring to the commission. so, with that i'd like to hear from colleagues, but that is [speaker not understood] i'd like to support the commission. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you. let me begin by thanking

commissioner girard gleason for his service. i know that, you know, serving on this kind of commission is not easy, a huge time commitment. and when someone takes it as seriously as you have taken it, i think that we have to recognize that. and on behalf of the people that i represent in district 9, we appreciate that commitment and that dedication. and, so, thank you. thank you very much for your service and thank you for being here. this is a hard one for me because i think that both candidates are pretty impressive, and i think that they each bring something unique to the table. i was prepared to come here and support either one of them and i certainly what very impressed with mr. paris' presentation and his commitment and

knowledge of elections. and i think that he would do a good job on the elections commission. that said, i'm not going to oppose the nomination of mr. jerdonek because i also know that he brings a lot to the table as well. so, and i know we heard from a lot of people on both sides who have a lot of respect for each candidate. and so with that, i will support the motion as well. >> okay. this one is even harder than the last one. i have to say both of you are well qualified to be on this. looking back and forth, i read your application. everything is so equal here. and what i do like is where

christopher jerdonek -- i think what he can be bringing onto this commission, as he mentioned about the equipment being old and needing to replace -- actually both of them, but he seems to have analytical 3skills to understand the kind of equipment that might be needed for the election process. i don't know if you actually made a motion. >> all right. i'd like to make a motion to appoint mr. christopher jerdonek to the elections commission. >> okay. with no objection, then, motion passes. [gavel] >> thank you very much. congratulations, and please consider, mr. paris, to come back -- you are a very qualified person. we would like to see you on the commission one day.

thank you very much. madam clerk, item number a5*. >> item number 5 is a hearing to consider appointing one member, term ending january 31, 2017, and two members, terms ending january 31, 2018, to the veterans affairs commission. ~ there are three vacant seats and six applicants. >> okay. so, the first applicant on the list, matthew scott gabe. ~ is not attending. is there a steve here? are you speaking for him? okay, come on up. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm steve [speaker not understood]. i serve on the [speaker not understood] commission. served as secretary for the past several years, and now am serving for this term as

president. i had the privilege of speaking for mr. matthew gabe for sometime in hawaii where he's serving right now during this two-week period, doing had i active duty reserve duty. and he is serving in the judge advocate general's department in the navy and he's an 06 navy commander, a captain. for those of you who don't know in the military 06 captain is equivalent to what we call a full board colonel in the army. full colonel as opposed to lieutenant current. he has high qualification. he's been an attorney in the judge advocate general's area for a very he long time. he's serving right now probably adjudicating some -- the fate

of some enlifted or an off certificate navy person. ~ enlisted. he's very familiar with the issues that are current -- post 9/11 veterans. he served in iraq adjudicating many cases there. he's very familiar with [speaker not understood] military issues and the problems and issues that have come up in court case he and so on within the military on that. so, i'm sorry that he's not here. he's sorry that he's not here, but we would really love to have him on this commission, and i advocate for his appointment. >> okay. >> he also volunteered, i should say, in the east bay stand down for veterans, which is every couple years a whole bunch of veterans including homeless veterans come together and receive many services, everything from showers to

dental work, to eyeglasses and so on and including legal services. and if you spend three days doing that, you have some commitment to veterans, particularly homeless and low-income veterans. so, that gives an insight intos his character. thank you. >> thank you very much for stepping in for him. the next person is brendan rogers. >> hello, good afternoon. i'm brendan rogers. i'm from san francisco. i grew up in the mission in the excelsior district. i currently live in soma. like many veterans i spent some time homeless. i live in hospitality house. for me joining the military and serving my country was a way out of poverty and a way to access higher education. i spent 16 years in the coast guard as an enlisted member, rank of chief petty officer now

an officer currently serving as the training officer for port security at 312 which is an expeditionery warfare unit out of san francisco airport. so, the only expedition warfare unit in san francisco city limits. i have served as a training officer and education service officer, serving junior personnel, helping them access and training through the military. i hold an m.b.a. from yada business school in barcelona, i'm currently a masters student at university of san francisco. i also volunteered to see stand down in 2012 and veterans wheelchair ragata. i served as [speaker not understood] in san francisco bay, [speaker not understood] in the area serving locally. i have a lot to offer this city. i'm a home grown guy and i think what i bring is a connection to active duty service members and i'm still in service, and i think i can advise the mayor significantly in that regard. thank you. if there are any questions.

>> seeing none, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> so, the next person, ernest chuck ayala has withdrawn. so, dwayne kennedy. >> good afternoon, chairman yee and members. my name is dwayne kennedy. i'm an urban planner. i'm a san francisco business owner and a proud military veteran. i'm here today because i believe i have the qualifications and experience necessary to be an effective veteran affairs commissioner. as you know, the commission is tasked to advise the mayor, board of supervisors, and others affecting veterans of the united states armed forces. in addition to my eight years of military service, i spent the past 25 years focused on urban planning issues related

to housing, transportation, economic development throughout the united states and the san francisco bay area. today in san francisco veterans and their families are facing increased challenges in our competitive housing market. as a commissioner i would like to work with the existing commission members to evaluate and advise decision-makers on legislation that will reduce the number of homeless veterans, increase the housing supply for veterans and their families, and support legislative efforts to aid in the relocation of veterans and their families facing hostile evictions. today in san francisco there are career opportunities for veterans and veterans looking for careers. as a commissioner, i would like to support my fellow commissioners and their long-standing efforts to match veterans with employment, educational opportunities, and services. today in san francisco,

military veterans and medical service providers rely on the facilities of fort miley's to exchange top notch medical care and treatment. as a commissioner i'd like to explore ways to improve transportation of patients and staff and ensure va commuter buses continue to roll every day. while i believe it's important to celebrate the bravery and service of san francisco veterans, it is equally important to do all we can to aid in the care of veterans in our community. supervisors, i hope you find my qualifications and experience complementary for appointment to the veterans affairs commission, and thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. thank you. next person is angela jenkins. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for this opportunity. with the others that are eager to serve in the va, i, too,

have qualifications i'd like to go over briefly with you. i have been trying to be on the va commission before and unfortunately due to [speaker not understood] last year i was unable to be here and present my eagerness to serve. i am a 20-year citizen here in the city of san francisco and also a veteran of the first gulf war, commonly call now the gulf war retracting acronym level persian war. i did serve proudly as my father did before me and as my brother, all of us in my family have had the opportunity to represent the united states in the armed forces. my qualifications include being on the board of trustees of an international nonprofit. while on that board i had the opportunity to author unique legislation towards inclusion creating a pamphlet target towards black african-american which took five years in the production of successfully -- over those five years we were able to as a nonprofit produce

that item which i am very proud of. right now i'm sitting on the [speaker not understood] advisory committee on the human rights commission and one of my greater passions as i indicated in my resume is for people who are released from prison or the population having had that scar of being incarcerated are also veterans. many times veterans are unaware they still have benefits available to them from the commission of correction from the va and to focus solely on or include those people sometimes missed in that population. my education includes serving with them or being a graduate of san francisco state university, i did a little bit of graduate work there, studied some -- let's say i was unconscious bias is what my passion is right now with my consulting firm that's what i focus on. i'm also a graduate of the boards commissions leadership of urban habitat and many of

san francisco's current leaders on the advisory committees are the same location [speaker not understood] wonderful institute across the bay. my civic activities include being part of rincon hill, serve on [speaker not understood], jane kim is leading that particular area. i also work on the blackout migration group. been also instrumental including inclusive list on the economic advisory committee. if it is your choice to let me have that opportunity to serve on the va commission, you'd have a great person who is committed to doing that. thank you very much. >> ms. jenkins, are you living in san francisco? >> i am a resident of san francisco. i've been here about 20 years. [speaker not understood] following my separation from the service i came to live in this area. >> okay. the reason i ask, the home ad