mayor is the chief executive officer. so when a mayor appoints over half of the policy makers, that's a problem. the analogy is to look at private enterprise. companies whose chief executive stacks the deck of the board of directors often lack competent executive oversight. they can get into trouble. that's the analogy with the way this system can happen now. i'm suggesting let the people decide right now. do they want things to go as they are? so be it, if that's the case, don't deny people the opportunity to have a truly fully independent policy making body, the board of supervisors. thank you. >> any other public comments on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed.

supervisor avalos. >> thank you, just want to thank all the members of the public for being here and want to urge that we can move this charter amendment forward to the full board with or without recommendation i would be okay with. i think it's important that we actually provide an opportunity for the voters to decide how we want to participate in filling vacancies on the board of supervisors and in the mayor's office. i think this is a reasonable thing that really lives up to our democratic ideals as a city. and just want to reiterate this is not about any particular supervisor or to question the qufrtions of any one appointment that's been made recently, it's really about having a process that lives up to our democratic ideals and values. we were making this on the pathway of doing this charter amendment back a couple years ago when lafco had done the study on vacancies and it was really about having a stable

way we can move forward on filling these vacancies. my experience on the board, especially when it came to making the appointment of the interim mayor was one i will never forget and one that i felt didn't live up to what san francisco is truly about. i really feel we can do something better and putting the right to fill vacancies in the hands of voters i think really, will really help in that process. so colleagues i really hope to have your support. >> supervisor tang. >> thank you, supervisor avalos and of course everyone who came out to speak. i made a series of comments last week, so i will not repeat those. but i will say is that for me especially as someone who has gone through now, i am going through two elections within two years, i feel this charter amendment is a little bit of a misnomer because i am sitting here as an elected official. i would challenge people if you do want

a democratic election that we get more people to come out and run, run against incumbents, don't be afraid to do that, that's how we will get a more democratic system. as an official who went through two elections, people will have that opportunity to and will have an an opportunity to as you did the research on the time frames when it should occur, i am open to but i think that currently as people who are appointed they do have to runny lex -- run election at least 120 days. people should absolutely be challenged especially if there are incumbents in place. with a special election, we

already struggle with voter turnout so we are essentially saying with voter turnout for a successor, we are willing to have a lower voter turnout to select who will be the next person in office, whether it's the board of supervisors or the mayor's office. that's something i want people to consider and hasn't been brought up. voter turnout i think is crucial. we saw very low turnout in june in our primaries even though there was a contested race, low turnout in november as well when we had to go run to fill the remainder of our predecessor's terms. the current system does allow opportunities for incumbents and appointees to be challenged in multiple ways and i want people to take advantage of what our current system actually allows. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you, let me say i

think voter turnout is important but it's interesting that that gets thrown out depending on what the issue is. if that is really the true motivating actor then let's all agree we should move the mayor's election to a presidential year because that will ensure that there is the largest voter turnout possible. and i guarantee you that there are people talking about voter turnout in the context of this proposal that will not support that for obvious reasons. i do think that we have to recognize that the current system does require appointed supervisors to run for election. but i think that not all elections are equal and i speak as someone who had to return as a non-incumbent and then had to run as an incumbent. and i will tell you that it's really hard to sit here

and say that, you know, that there is no difference if you haven't gone through it, but having gone through the process of running for an office without the benefits of incumbancy i can tell you it's a very different experience. when you haven't had the opportunity to say that you serve in that seat that there is an added level of convincing that is required on your part including the fact, by the way, that by virtue of not being the incumbent you don't have the benefit that incumbents have including the benefit of an established fund raising base. so i do think that there are differences between running as an incumbent, whether you are an appointed incumbent or not, and running

as someone where there is no person that is on the ballot that is currently filling that seat. and so i think that what i appreciate about this proposal, and it's actually something that i think that it's credit to supervisor avalos because i actually think there are more examples in other jurisdictions where there is a vacancy in a legislative body, that the legislative body itself decides who fills that vacancy and that in many places where there is a vacancy on the city council it is the city council that decides. i'm glad that in this case that was not the choice made, that it was actually given to the voters. because i actually think that that is the more appropriate approach. because that way you are trying to, as much as possible, take politics out of the mix so that it's not a power

struggle between, you know, elected officials on the board and the elected mayor but it's actually just left exclusively to the voters to make that decision. i really appreciate that and i think that it's really hard for me to understand the opposition, though i respect that there are different perspectives on this one, but having run in two different elections i can tell you that there is a real advantage when you are running as an incumbent and i am glad this proposal takes that advantage away and levels the playing field so voters have an opportunity to decide for themselves who gets to fill that vacancy. thank you. >> thank you. i think what i've heard is arguments on both sides of this discussion and that we're moving from a possible one system into another system. at this point i haven't completely made up my mind whether one system is better than the

other. however, i'm open to moving this legislation to the full board with no recommendation so that we can consider it. by that time hopefully i will have ample time to think about it more and have discussions with other people that aren't in this room. so i'd like to make a motion that we move this item to the full board with no recommendation. >> so moved. >> with no objection, motion passes. thank you. so, madam clerk, can you please call items 2 through 5? >> item no. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are charter amendments for the november 4, 2014 election to renew the children's fund and extend expiration date for 25 years, increase the property

tax set aside from 3 cents to 4 cents, provide services for disconnected transitional age youth, 18224 years old, revise the planning process for expenditures (inaudible) working group, create a renew and extend the public education enrichment fund and change the allocation for universal preschool to an al location for early education and create a reserve. >> thank you very much. our staff reviewed the latest draft and provided minor corrections and cleaned up text to the city attorney's office. again i want to express my thanks to tom holan, who has been work being very diligently with us on our amendments. i guess you made the final reviews and

we have copies of the item. >> i believe the clerk has copies for the supervisors. >> thank you. so supervisor avalos, would you like to make any comments about this before i take public comment? >> sure, just very, very briefly, i just wanted to recognize all the work that has gone to these amendments. the new charter amendment that we're going to move forward to the full board i believe will be a consolidation of peace and rainy day and children's fund and children's council and i am perfectly fine with the merger of those and when it comes to the other charter amendments that are still on the rules committee i am fine to still have those be tabled, to have the one consolidated measure move forward and i want to thank supervisor yee, chair yee, for your work in bringing people

together and making this happen and i look forward to final passage. >> any other comments? seeing none, public comments? >> good afternoon, supervisors, barbara carlson from the department of early care and education. there is one amendment that i mentioned to miss low from supervisor yee's office that didn't make it in this version and i'd like to mention it now. on page 30, line 10, there should be a statement that refers to an equity analysis of services and resources for children. is that correct? because i don't have the latest version. so the office would like to ask that the office be charged with an equity analysis for early childhood. this line reads services for children and families and we don't provide services to

youth and youth is in there still, i think. >> page 30. >> line 10. >> the plan shall. >> the plan shall include an being quit analysis of services and resources for children, youth and families, and the office is not charged with serving youth. thank you very much. >> any other public comments on this item? seeing none -- mr. owen. >> tom owen, city attorney's office. just to be clear you are asking that the word youth be stricken at the beginning of line 11 so it would read the plan shall include a plan for equity analysis for children and family, correct? >> that will be included as part of the amendments that we will make. okay, no other public comments,

public comment is now closed. again, most of these amendments that we're introducing today to the children and families first initiative really are what we consider minor amendments but it had to be done to make sure that we do everything correctly. so one of the major things is that we're including a rainy day reserve in there and referencing it to the general preamble for the combined ballot initiative. then for the children youth fund amendments we just wanted to further clarify the role of children youth and their families oversight and advisory committee. the committee would be allowed to review and approve the department's budgets and grants as a package. however, the board of supervisors would ultimately need to approve the department's budget for disbursement to proceed. specified or simplified lines

-- the other thing we did was to simplify as much as possible the deadlines for the 5 year planning cycle in order to allow for dcyf, or the department for children youth and families more flexibility while still allowing for flexibility in the process and for children's fund amendments it's allowing for flexibility in the fund for the universal access for early education to be used for access of children to zero degree and (inaudible) include the local control funding formly and determines the student funding targets. then for the children and families council amendments would be including an equity analysis when our children or families council creates the city-wide children and families plan of san francisco. we also renamed the

evaluation of the council's work for the kids first ayen today -- agenda to be the children and families progress report. so those are some of the amendments we are introducing plus striking the word youth on the noted place that miss carson pointed out. so i'd like to have, i'll make a motion for these amendments but before we do that, supervisor campos. >> thank you, mr. chair. again, to echo everything that's been said i want to thank chair yee, supervisor avalos, supervisor kim and everyone who has been working on this and all the city agencies and the coalition. just had a quick question about the amendment that was just made around youth. so as i understand it, that amendment is appropriate because it deals with access to universal

-- to early education. is that right? but when it comes to let's say transitional age youth there's still an equity component that that goes into that, right? so that's not just for purposes of this section. just wanted to make that -- thank you. >> so i have a motion to make, introduce the amendments. is there any objection? seeing none, the amendments are passed. again i'm going to show my deep appreciation next week when we hear one more last time before we hopefully send it out to the full board, but for today, what i'd like to do is continue the item, right? i guess all the items to the call of the chair. okay? so do i need to make a motion? that's a motion. no objection, motion passes.

madam clerk, is there anything else? >> that concludes our business for today. >> all right, meeting adjourned. (meeting adjourned).

>> hi, i'm corn field and welcome to doing building san francisco, we are doing a special series, called stay safe, how you can stay in your home safely and comfortable, and we know that an earthquake is coming and there are things that you can do to reduce the effects of the earthquake on your home. let's take a look at that. >> here at the spur urban center on mission street in san francisco talking about staying in your home after an earthquake. i have guests today, pat buscavich and his dog, harvey and david, and both structural engineers and we want to talk about things that you might do before an earthquake to your home to make it more likely that your home will be ha bitable after an earthquake, what should we do? both structural and maybe even

important non-structural things. >> you hear about how to prepare an earthquake kit and brace your book shelves and water tank and that is important. what you have to be careful is make sure that you are not going the easy things to make yourself feel better. if you have a bad structure, a bad building, then you need to be looking at that and everything that you do to keep your collectables in place is small and compared. if you have taken care of your structure, then there is a lot of stuff that you can do in your house that is non-structural and your chimney and water tank. >> let's talk about what the structural things might be. >> and he is exactly right. you don't want to make the deck chairs safe on the titanic, it is going down, you are going down, you have to make sure that your house is safe. there are basic things that you need to do including bracing the water heater, not just because of fire hazard but because of the water source and the damage, but basic things are installing anchor bolts,

and adding plywood and strapping your beams to column and posts to footings and foundations are really easy things to do and most contractors can do the building department is set up to approve this work, and these are things that every home owner should do, and it is a little harder because you have to get a building permit and hire a contractor. but you want to be able to after a big earthquake to climb in bed that night and pull the covers up and say i don't have to worry about going to a government shelter. >> that is the main focus that it is great to have an earthquake kit to be able to bug out for 72 hours. here is a better idea, stay in your own home and in order to do that you have to be make sure that your structure is okay. if you have a house, the easy things to do with the wood construction is feasible. if you have a renter or you live in a concrete building, you need to talk to the building own , and make sure they have done their due diligence and find out what the

deficiencies are. >> when i have looked at damaged buildings,vy seen that a little bit of investment in time and money and structural work provides great dividends. >> especially if it is the wood frame, typical house that you can do the things that i was talking about, the anchor and the plywood in the first garage area, you know if you refinanced in the last three years, get some of that savings and it is a really good investment. and the other thing that i try to tell people, earthquake insurance is not the solution to the shelter in place, if there is a big earthquake and your building is damaged, you are not in your house, you may be somewhere else, if you work in the city, it is going to be really hard to commute from sonoma, you want to do what is necessary so that your house is retrofitted and a couple of years of earthquake premium could get you to a level that you could be in the house after a significant earthquake and it may have damage and there is still a shelter in place where you are at home and you are not

worried for the government taking care of you and you are living in a place where you can go to work and you want to have your wood frame house is really easy to get to that level. on top of the wood frame house, i mean every wood frame house in the west half of the city have a water tank and the water tank fall over because they are gas fired and start fires. and that is something that you could do for yourself, and for your neighbors and for the whole city is make sure that your water tank is braced. >> if you look at the studies that are predicting on fires, we are going to have a lot of fires and for every water tank that is braced there is a potential of one less fire that the fire department is going to have to fight and we don't want to have any more fires than we need to. so bracing the water heater is the first thing that you want to do. >> and so easy, and you go on-line and you google, earthquake, water and heater and you google the sites where you can find the details and you can put them out there on the hardware store and you can hire a small contract tore do that for you.

that is a couple of hundred bucks, the best investment. if you are in other types of building it is complicated. if you are in a high-rise building you just can't anchor your building down because there are no anchor bolts, but at that point, the tenant should be asking questions of the owner's and the managers about earthquake preparedness >> and don't take the easy answer, oh, our building is safe it was designed to code. that is not the right answer, ask the tough questions and see if you can get a report that has been given to you. >> what is the right question? will i be able to stay in my home after the expected earthquake? is that a good question to ask? >> yeah, you may be more specific if you talk to the owner, if it is not a recent building, if it is ten or 20 years old see if they had an inspection done and there you will have a written before that will tell you all about the structure. >> thanks, pat. >> thanks, harvey. and thanks david for joining us and thank you for joining us on

>> welcome, everyone, to the san francisco board of supervisors budget and finance committee special meeting for friday, june 20th, 2014. my name is mark farrell, i will be chairing this committee. i am joined by supervisors e mar, john avalos, scott wiener and london breed. want to thank the members of sfgtv covering this meeting jeff smith and mark bunch as well as the clerk of the committee, mr. victor young. apologize for that. victor young. sorry, mr. young. i need to turn off my phone also. mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? >> yes. please silence all cell phones and electronic devices. any documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the july 8th, 2014 board of