>> vanae tran has withdrawn her nomination. the next person is idell wilson. >> yes, good afternoon, supervisors. and i have to apologize. i can't talk that long because i have sinuses. the pollen and stuff in the air. i did submit my recent resume to you guys. i have been aes are ~ resident in san francisco all of my life, born and raised in general hospital, raised four children through the special education system here. now they're all grown and thank god gone. i currently have grandchildren and i currently hold a seniors spot. i'm working with people with disabilities and seniors who have their grandchildren who have disabilities now. a new generation of children.

so, i do not -- again, i apologize, i have sinuses and i do not wish to speak that long and hold you guys' time and run down the resume. i have always wanted to serve in san francisco, the most resourceful beautiful city in this world. thank you guys very much. >> thank you. >> siam sorry, you guys. any questions? ~ >> any questions? i think you came before one other time. >> yeah, and i gave a hispanic lady -- there was not -- there had never been a hispanic woman on the mental health board before and i gave her an opportunity. and this is the -- she left. i'm back again applying for the same [speaker not understood]. >> right. was it your children that went

through the system? >> excuse me? >> you mentioned last time -- public education system? >> no. >> special education system here in san francisco? >> family members that might have gone through the system for mental health. >> yes, i had a family member here in san francisco now. >> they may have received mental health -- >> mental health services, yes, in the mental health services here. >> um-hm. >> through the mental health, and the mental health board, the cbs community mental health board and nami, a lot of different services that are available here in san francisco. >> okay. any other questions? supervisor tang? >> there we go. i'm sorry, this question may be more for the city attorney. i had a question because seat 16 which these applicants are applying for must be for a

family member. and, so, in terms of the candidate who is before us, he did mention that it was himself as an individual who has gone and received services and i wanted to know whether that was -- that was something that would qualify for this seat. >> deputy city attorney jon givner. the answer is a little complicated. there are different categories of, of people who can fill seats on this board. the board has to have at least four consumers, that is, people who have received mental health services in san francisco, and at least for family members, which is adult, children's, domestic partners or siblings of people who have received mental health services in san francisco. the statute -- i'm sorry, the ordinance that creates the

board doesn't actually specify who needs to sit in which seats. so, in a way it probably depends on how many family members are currently on the board. if there are currently four family members on the board, then there would be no problem with a consumer holding that seat. the clerk's office generally has a way of tracking seats in order to, to make sure that, that at least minimally complying with the ordinance. but there may be another seat where a family member is sitting already. >> maybe -- could you come up and maybe you might have some information? >> it's rather a complicated board in that we are a state [speaker not understood] board and we are also in the city charter. and i've been executive director.

my name is [speaker not understood], since 1999. and when i came on at that point, and i don't have the history of that, but each supervisor at that point were supervisors at large and [speaker not understood] was the sitting supervisor on our board. each supervisor had a specific seat that they appointed a family member, a client, a mental health professional, or public interest. and the total numbers, that's 11 supervisors and then the rules committee appointed five people, five different seats. there are two family members, two consumers, and -- no, two family members, one consumer, one public interest, and one mental health professional that were the purview of the rules committee. and then when the supervisors became districts -- that was -- i don't know exactly how that happened. each district supervisor was then assigned either a consumer seat, a family member seat, a mental health professional seat, or a public interest seat.

this particular seat is one of the rules committee's family member seats. and, yes, there is the charter about the numbers, but in order to maintain those numbers we have at least up to this time each supervisor or the rules committee has appointed whatever particular seat was assigned. does that answer the question? and a family member seat is a person with, you know, a family member who has been through the mental health system. adult children have both been through special ed and have received mental health services, she's had a foster child as well. she's not feeling very well, but i've known her for years. so, anyway. >> thank you very much. does that clarify for you? that's why i thought i remember her mentioning last time, but not this time.

so, any other questions? seeing none, thank you very much. >> [speaker not understood]. >> no, it's not about you. >> we were just trying to clarify for the different types of seats and whose qualifications fit into which type of seat and what was allowable. >> [speaker not understood]. >> we understand. it's not about you, it was not about you. thanks. any public comments on this matter? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel] >> so, if we -- i've been through this before. we've had more qualified candidates than seats. both candidates to me are good candidates. any comments? supervisor campos? >> i think it is, once again, one of those situations where you want to appoint both because i think both are extremely qualified and would be excellent additions to this body. what i would say is i would

encourage both of you whether you get appointed today or not, to continue remain interested because the way these appointments happen is that if you do not get the appointment now, there is always an opportunity to get the appointment at a later point. and, so, i would simply ask that you, if you don't get this, that you come back to us. that said, without, you know, casting anything negative on the other person because i think they're both great, i think i'm going to nominate idell wilson. she's been through this process before and i think that -- i certainly have interacted with her. and i think she brings a lot, as would mr. per if i had owe as well. ~ porfido as well.

so, that would be my motion. >> as i mention, i remember her coming a lot the last time and there were qualified -- more qualified people than the position. the recognition at the time was it would be great to fill the seat in the past with a bilingual person. so, the fact that she's come back and shown her strong interest in this, i would support your motion. supervisor tang? >> all right, thank you. today after listening to both of the statements from the applicants, i would have liked to appoint mr. porfido to the position to the mental health board. but given that ms. wilson has 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 seat

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