into a strong desire to make sure that the details match up with the goals on the projects that have come in my purview. as example on my time in the hunters point cac, i also dove into the details of transportation plan, leaving the cac to suggest changes to improve the quality of life for future resident and workers in shipyard. as chair i of the advisory board for the san francisco community investment fund i took a fine toothed come to funding projects and made sure they met the city's goals and stated goals planning commission as i have been on the suggestionor agency commission, but you if any it's not enough to be hard-working when it comes to being appointed to such an important commission. you believe that great cities promote development of great people and to me that means that residents should be able to work, recreate, et cetera.

i believe they choose everyone should be able to live near where they are work, start a business, having convenient access to open space and, et cetera. what i have outlined if my nomination is successful i work the opportunity to learn the land use concerns and desires of all of the various communities of san francisco, by dialoguing with those communities directly and learning from other commissioners, city staff and members of the board of supervisors. i especially hope to learn from those who care deeply about their neighborhoods, but may not be engaged in the process it's currently exists. thank you for this opportunity to be before he today and i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

>> supervisor tang. >> if you could address a little bit some b some of the challenges that you might see facing the planning department and planning commission in the upcoming years and you already kind of touched upon what your goals and visions are, but if you want to elaborate or command on those, that could be great. >> sure, i think there are a number of issues that will come before the planning department. a lot of times we focus on residential aspect of real estate development, but there is a very important commercial piece. formula retail i know will come up pretty soon and i know that is very important and defines the character of our neighborhoods. affordable housing, obviously, which was tied to the residential piece. but also we're go ing to be looking at development of office space and how that looks across the city

there is nexus to transit that we heard with the previous nominee and so me i see the city as there is no one piece of that that is more important than the other when it comes to building a great city. so we need affordable housing. we need open space. we need access to open space for all communities. we need vibrant places for people to go to work or to do whatever it is that they want to do during the day or even. so all of those are equally important issues to me. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you very much, miss johnson. thank you for meeting with me. i wanted to follow-up on a couple of points. one the issue of affordability. we have an affordability crisis and i think if there is any agreement, is that at least everyone agrees that is a problem.

do you have any thoughts in terms of what you think the planning commission can do to help address that issue as we're moving forward? >> i think that there is -- when i think about the affordability -- affordable housing issue, there is sort of like a layered-cake and you need to address sort of the top layers before you can get to the ones underneath. and to me, i think we need to build just more affordable units. we need more inclusionary housing and more for us at all income levels. how we get there is to make sure our current policies support getting that housing. so is it inclusionary policy as currently constructed? does it work? are we using our impact fees to actually build units on sites when we at times when we collect those? and what else

can we do to spur more on-site development of affordable units? i think those are all -- they are three different issues, but they are all equally important to making sure that we not only set goals for affordable housing but we actually get those units. >> one of the roles that the planning commission plays is obviously community outreach. and i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about your experience in working with different communities? there are a lot of projects in different parts of the city that perhaps you may not have worked in or be as familiar with? and if you can talk a little bit about your background and history in trying to engage communities including those that perhaps are relatively new to you? >> absolutely. i think i will start to answer your question, my background is very helpful here. when i was first appointed to

the hunters point cac i had never been to hunters point. i had never been to district 10. lived on treasure island and there was talk of trying to allow me to go on the treasure island cac and that didn't work out so i came to hunters point truly as an outsider and i think i was called that more than once. over the years i learned to build trust in the fact that i cared about the community and even though i didn't live there, i wanted the best for the current and future residents and i did that not only attending cac meetings, but the transportation meetings and by joining other boards which is how i was eventually appointed to the san francisco community investment fund. so i really been able to grow my connections in a community that i really had no connection to before. and i hoped to be able to do that across the city and i look

forward to getting introductions not only to neighborhood groups that have been particularly active, but also to individual citizens who may not have been part of the process before. i really enjoy that process of someone learning something about how their city works and i hope i will be able to do that citywide. >> thank you. >> thank you, miss johnson. when we were talking or when we met earlier, one of the issues that is important to me and some of my colleagues is the issue of family housing. and regardless of what income, there is a nexus, of course, to affordable housing, but can you give your vision of how we could move our agenda in regards to putting more

family-friendly housing? >> absolutely. so i think when we talk about planning, again, the work of the planning department and the planning commission as sort of a policy-setting body is much more than residential housing. it's also open space. it's also availability of commercial establishments that cater to families and cater to youth. so when you talk about family housing, yes of course we want to push for multiunit family-sized housing in new and rehabilitated developments, but what is around there? what does the neighborhood-serving retail look like? we need open space, more children's parks and parks for children just, as much as we need general open space and this is something that i hope to learn about. we need a good spread of child-care, you know? for example there is child-care that is near residences, but we

also need to look at what is the child-care available in job sites and commercial enterprises? when you have children that are young from the ages of 0-2 and you are especially a new mother and have to go back to work, you don't want to leave your newborn child a couple of miles from where you work. you want to be right there. so that is something that has nothing to do with residential real estate, but that is commercial real estate. so i whole -heartedly believe we can create an environment that is friendly to families and what is going to make family life easier. >> thank you. there is some discussion in regards to manufacturing space or space for manufacturing. and some of it is the category of "light manufacturing." and seems whether you are making

jam or sewing something, it seems that we are losing more and more of that space. and that is the type of small business that can, as you grow in san francisco, rather than the larger manufacturing companies. and yet, they have been squeezed out and as more development occurs, they are losing that space and being replaced by residential. so can you talk a little bit, how you would as a commissioner try to balance that? >> yes. so i will say that i absolutely agree that in order for san francisco to remain a strong city in the future, we need a diverse economy, which includes having industrial uses and blue-collar jobs. yes, the times have changed and there are some types of industrial usage that have declined and not sure that they are going to come back. for example, having a working port.

but there is plenty of uses as you alluded to, supervisor yee, that could grow in the city. when we talk about pdr space, this is something that i would hope i would need more data about and i would hope to be able to study it. i honestly don't know the information whether or not it's a matter of retaining the current space that we have available for prd and stopping that for being converted or if we need to talk about zoning throughout the city. that is just something that i don't know, but i know it's part of our economy that we need to make sure is strong in the city, particularly when we talk about supporting smaller enterprises. >> currently there is a lot of pressure to build more residential in san francisco, and so the tension lies between -- at least for my district,

it's really important, that we retain as much of our rh1-designated district areas, neighborhoods, as much as possible is something that comes out very loud and strong in my district. but there is so much pressure to go beyond rh1 and say let's have multi-units in almost every place that you could think of. talk a little bit about that in terms of how you would support the retention of rh1-type of housing. >> so one of the things that i have always loved about san francisco it has been a microcosm of the bay area and i would want to be able to maintain the differentiation in

our neighborhoods. that being said, i do know that there are certain areas of the city, where the height limits and other zoning requirements allow for multi-unit dwellings and a little more building than what we have seen. so i would love to hear from community members what they think about that future vision? and in terms of maintaining rh1. that is one where i appreciate that there are neighborhoods that are different from other neighbors neighborhoods and i would want to hear directly from community members what they envision for their city? is it no change or is there an opportunity for a future there that could be adjusted from what there is now? i couldn't say what that vision, but is i would want to hear from other people. >> thank you, miss johnson. >> thank you. >> so now we're going to open

up this item for public comments. so i have some cards here. let me call them out as i received them. [ reading speakers' names ] >> supervisors, i am here to support christine johnson my

fellow commissioner for the community investment infrastructure commission former. she is very intelligent and thoughtful and i think she is going an excellent addition to the planning commission. thank you. >> thank you. >> i don't have any glasses on. so excuse me for holding my phone what i speak. any name is theo ellington and good afternoon supervisors. it's with great pleasure that i recommend the appointment of christine johnson. i worked with her while she served on the board of directors for the bay area opera house and currently cac and we're currently colleagues

on successor agency. can i speak to her passion and dedication to this great city. i would be doing a disservice if i didn't mention her exceptional ability to be straightforward and her ability to not only ask the tough questions, but ask the right questions. her qualifications and background i think speaks for itself. she understands land use and understands development and has a strong finance background. in addition, she understands the dynamics of san francisco. i think she has been in situations where she has had support of the community and also had to work with folks here at city hall. she has been a tireless advocate for affordable housing and worked on workforce development and for communities in need and also worked on transportation issues as well. christine is a true public servant and i urge her

nomination to the full board. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is marly lee mandi har. christine and i are fellow commissioners with the community of investment and infrastructure, the successor agency of the redevelopment commission. you have seen her qualifications and she has been able to respond to your questions and i totally support christine -- christine is just amazing. although i'm sad she is leaving our commission to go to another, i have been very impressed in how she has conducted our proceedings. she does her homework, which is very important when you are in a commission and she really --

as theo said, asks the right questions. she is very thoughtful. she manages our proceedings professionally and efficiently. and not only that, she is very knowledgeable and works with the projects and with the department that we work with. the other thing that i would like to say about her is that she is also very community-oriented. recently she joined my event to work with young girls 9-12 years old to share her expertise and be able to help in mentoring these young girls. so i am here to really support her appointment and i hope you do so. thank you. >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm tom locker and i have been a banker to the city for the past 30 years in public finance and had the pleasure of meeting

christine in the context of a variety of financings associated with the successor agency. i'm here to support her candidacy for the commission. thank you very much. >> hello supervisors. my name is michael and i'm here to lend my voice in support of christine johnson's nomination. i have had the pleasure of working with her. i run the office at the hunters point shipyard. christine just has an incredible capacity to be able to intake information and as others have said, to ask the right questions. but one thing i did want to say, her commitment is just way aboveboard. i think in the years that she served on the cac, she may have missed three meetings out of

hundreds of meetings. so again i just wanted to lend my support. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisor. brook solomon with rdj enterprises. as a firm, working in and for the southeast, we have had the distinct pleasure of working with and witnessing commissioner johnson's engagement with elected officials, department heads, community leaders, community members, families in an effort to address land use issues in the bayview. and the successful result of those efforts in tandem with her finance background, we're wildly excited to endorse this

recommendation to the seat for commissioner johnson and strongly urge that you do the same. thank you very much. >> good afternoon, commissioner. again, dwayne jones. i just want to echo many of the comments of the folks before me have said. i want to add to that that i have heard some concern about commissioner johnson's ability to kind of engage communities. the southeast sector is not always the easiest district and/or community to work in and it's one place that we find that one who is serious about doing community work can actually get some real stripes and i can attest that commissioner johnson has earned her stripes in the southeast working both for the cac on several non-profit boards. she is relentless in her pursuit for what is right for the people not only in that

district, but citywide. we have always been impressed with how wickedly smart she is and a willingness to learn that which she does not know. we're excited for this appointment and urge your support. thank you. >> good afternoon honorable board members. i'm mr. moses and i sincerely agree with every word that was spoken. i want to tell you what i know about her. christine has been in our neighborhood for many, many years and as she told you, she didn't know much, but she learned fast. she is well-known in all the neighborhoods. everywhere i go, you know, she is part of the neighborhood, all the neighborhoods. she is always there for all, because she really, really understand what is going on.

i'm on the board of directors of developers and she is very friendly and very helpful and looking for quality, she is, if you looking for someone who is smart and young and full of energy, here she is. so i'm urging you to please confirm the appointment. you have nothing to lose. >> any other public comments on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed. yes, indeed, we have much to gain. you know, the common theme and certainly from what i have gathered about miss johnson is that she is very energetic, a quick-learner and is very

willing to put the work into as described by her past experience going into hunters point. san francisco is a very diverse city, with many, many different situations and it's one of these things where impossible for any individual to come in, to a commission like this city planning and to know all the neighborhoods and so forth. i am feeling, like, if you were to put the same amount of energy and tried to discover the rest of san francisco, so that when people come to you with their perspectives that you understand it better and you have the capacity to do that. i certainly like your past experiences and there is a lot for you to learn, but at the same time, you can very much do the analyses of a new

situation, get the information that you need to come up with your answers, maybe because both of us have engineer degrees, i actually appreciate the way you think. so i am joined in this committee by supervisor cohen and supervisor cohen would you like to make some comments? >> thank you very much, i would like just to acknowledge some of the talented women that we have on the agenda. we're speaking on christine johnson, but also to uplift sonia melara and gwyneth borden. christine has been an asset not just to the southeast neighborhood, but she is more than just an african-american woman and representative, she is a representative of the entire san francisco. she is a representative of a generation that struggles to be in between folks that are

currently holding power and folks that are looking to assume some more responsibility. she has risen to the occasion. i personally asked her to meet and confer with labor and the mayor's office as my representative and kept me attuned to what was going on. what was most impressive, she was able to use her financial prowness to help bring enlightenment on a labor issue, a labor dispute which ultimately resulted in a peaceful resolution. so i'm happy to add my name in support of miss christine johnson and hope that you move her forward. thank you. >> supervisor tang. >> thank you. and thank you, supervisor cohen for your comments especially as a representative of the district that i know miss johnson has been working a lot with. i had a chance to meet with miss johnson and was very

impressed by her. i know she mentioned that she moved to san francisco about ten years ago and as you can see she has already done a lot in san francisco in those ten years. again, very impressed by that, as well as your background. i think it will be a huge asset in both the engineering and finance worlds. for me as we struggle to accommodate more people in san francisco, as we struggle to build more housing units, to accommodate families and children and seniors and we are trying to reach the mayor's goal of 30,000 new unit by 2020, all of those things must be balanced against community needs and desires, as well as how is that we preserve the characteristic of our communities? i know that we heard that loud and clear everyday, and that is something that the planning commission and the department contends with on a daily basis. and so however i do feel it's actually also very important that we do have some fresh energy here, people who may not have grown up in san francisco, but choose to make san francisco their home. it's very important that we

also have their perspective. and so i do appreciate that about miss johnson, as well as her attention to detail, which is very much needed as a planning commissioner. so i'm happy to support her appointment to the planning commission and would be happy to make a motion to recommend her with full recommendation to the full board of supervisors. >> supervisor campos? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i will be very brief. i know that we still have a couple of items. i did meet with miss johnson and i appreciated her responses. and certainly was very impressed with her. i think she is smart. she has an open-mind and i think she is going to do a great job. so i'm happy to support that motion. >> okay. so we have a motion on the floor. >> mr. chair? >> if you want to send this out with a positive recommendation, you need to amend the motion to delete "reject/and rejecting" on lines

3 and 11. >> accept the amendment first to the motion. >> i would like to make a motion to amend item 4 to approve christine johnson to the planning commission. >> okay. any objections? seeing none, amendments are passed. >> and then make a motion to send forward with positive recommendation a motion approving christine johnson to the planning commission. >> okay. and seeing no objections, motion passes, congratulations. [ applause ] >> thank you. madame clerk, could i have item no. 5. >> item no. 5 is the charter amendment for the november 4th, 2014 election to provide retiri health care benefits to employees who transfered from the redevelopment agency or the

successor agency. >> so supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much. yes, colleagues, so thank you again for allowing me an opportunity to come to this committee. and present to you a hearing item today. this is a proposed charter amendment, a narrowly crafted resolution to transition approximately 38 employees who were formerly employed by the redevelopment agency. and as many of you know in 2012, there were in 2012 we were all reeling from the governor's decision to abolish the redevelopment agencies across the state and to say the least this is one issue i'm working with and i was just in another committee dealing with another issue with the dissolution of redevelopment agency has put us in a state of tizzy. over the past three years we focused on moving forward projects that have benefited from tax increment