and of course you can find more information moresfrecpark.org. -- >> good afternoon, today is friday, june 27th, 2014, welcome to san francisco local agency formation commission, my name is supervisor john avalos and i am the chair of the commission, joined to my right by vice chair london breed and my left by far left is far right, far left is commissioner mar, and commissioner campos, and with me is lisa miller and we are also broadcast today by

sfgtv staff. thank you for your work and madam clerk, do we have any announcements? >> please be sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices speaker cards to be submided with the clerk. >> okay. very good, just to go through today's agenda. we are going to go into a little bit out of order after our minutes, and we are going to go to our appointments item number six we will move up to after our minutes. let's go to item two. >> approval of the lafco minutes from the may 16, 2014. >> any comments or questions? >> motion to approve the minutes? >> we will hold that motion in abuy ans and seeing no member of the public coming forward we will close public comment and

we have a motion from commissioner breed and seconded by campos and we will take that without objection? and let's go on to item number six? >>consider appointing one public member and one public (alternate) member, terms ending february 22, 2018, to the local agency formation commission . >> okay. thank you, madam clerk, and so colleagues, we have up two seats, one public seat and an alternate, and i think that we have the ability to appoint both today and i hope that we can do that. and commissioner campos? >> thank you. i just want to note that without talking about the individuals and i know that we have incredible, two incredible applicants. i think that they are going to do an incredible job. but i want to just note that for me, i don't really see that much of a differentiation

between the two seats in the sense that i really believe that the historically that the two individuals in these seats have worked together and sort of in a team effort to make sure that the public's view and concerns are taken into account and so i think that it is important to really note that because i think that there is not really any difference other than at times, depending on who is here, there may be a vote or not, but one person can take, but every one of these individuals, is you know, a full part of this body. and commission. and it is exciting to see two pretty impressive individuals apply. >> thank you. i would like to have the people who are interested to come forward and present themselves

and open up the public comment for that? and the applicants can come forward and if you want to come and support the applicants can speak afterward and first up, we have cynthia crews. >> i became an activist when i was 16 and my home town of jacksonville, was home of three sites, and the drums of dyoxin leaked into our soil and our well water and our streams and our parks and they spewed toxins in our air and protesting it was the first taste of working for environmental yus. and i felt that same intolerance here in san

francisco in the face of similar injustices and when i joined up with the pissed off voters with the grassroots organizer i learned that the only way to move the discussion forward was to jump with both feet. clean power sf has been attack under many fronts, pg&e, and we have been in the site together for a decade or more, and from early partnerships on the first pca legislation to green gorillas against green rush and we have been fighting to make clean power a reality. and i know that clean power sf is important to all of us and it is imperative that this be number one on the agenda. and it is also important that lafco maintain gender diversity and san francisco is under represented by women of all

levels of government, and as the activity haves spoken in support of clean power sf on the commission of the environment and the puc, cac, we published an open letter entitled stop the shell shock, more like stop pg and e bs. and this burns real action against climate change and the limits of corporate funded think tanks. and i'm not applying to it because i want to use it as a stepping stone for my next move, i am a policy wo nk and it is a independent agency and not to the board of supervisors or the mayor, it is an important agency, and it is a research powerhouse, they are doing the work, and paving the way for progressive legislation and i am further qualified on the basis of my work on

additional topics of research, how jurisdiction fill vacancies between election cycles and the voting in the city and county of san francisco, and i am excited about the future projects and exploring the loose fears of service reviews and increasing san francisco ininvolvement. and right now, our fight is to get clean power sf implemented and it is top of mind for me, and i will fight for it like i fought for clean water and clean air in arkansas i will fight for clean power and i ask you for your appointment today in seat six, thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you for your presentation, miss crews, any comments or questions? commissioner mar? >> i would like to thank miss crews for applying and you have quite a few letters of support from community organizations and individual leaders, and i think that you are going to be

a tremendous member of this commission and i did want to ask, there has been a traditional and historic divide between the grassroots and the communities of color and environmental justice groups with the main stream movement and the organizations and i am just wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you as an organizer and activist look at those contradictions. >> i think that the environmental movement has left behind a lot of people. and i think that i understand how that feels from a social perspective. i grew up in rural arkansas in a trailer park, and those types of environmental injustices that i feel that these are similar to the communities of color that feel the same. >> i don't think that i know

how every person feels and i certainly would not say that because i had a hard childhood or i grew up in an area that was forgotten, that i know exactly how people feel. but i think that listening and being em ep emp athetic is something that i would want to do. >> thank you for your answer. >> and i really appreciate all of the work that you have done behind the scenes over the years. and you know, environmental work and looking at green power sf and that is something to take into a lot of consideration as you are before us today. and so very appreciate your presentation, and if there are any questions, we can go on to the next candidate. >> thank you. >> i just want to make a quick point about his crews. one of the things that i think is really remarkable about this applicant, besides the passion and the knowledge, is just a level of community involvement. you are everywhere, and i think that it is really important for the person who represents the

public even in one of these seats to really be out there, and speaking with folks, and i think that is really an important piece of what we want to see, and i think that we have not seen, i think, the level of engagement that, i think, that we want to see, and so i am excited about that piece because i think that, you bring a great deal of strength on that point. >> thank you. >> xh commissioner breed? >> thank you. >> and thank you for being here today and miss crews. and i wanted to ask a question that you know, i am particularly struggling with as someone who cares about moving clean power forward. i know that there has been a lot of debate around opt in verses opt out and many of the advocates including i think we had a discussion about this, that you support, and opt out, rather than opt in and i know that some of the arguments is that it will be a more successful program if it is the

ability to opt out verses opt in. and one of the arguments that comes from folks in my community is the fact that they feel that they, and that a couple of things, number one, it might impact seniors who do not completely understand the process in general and it might impact the limited, english, speaking individuals, because it mighting a little bit complicated to figure out whether or not they should or should not opt in or opt out and so i just wanted to hear your take on what solutions you might propose on how we can basically bridge that gap in order to make sure that we put together the best system in order for clean power to be a success for those who might experience challenges if we put together a system that requires people to opt out. >> sure. >> i know that there are a lot of eyes on opt-in, verses

opt-out, especially with the 2145, that was debated. i think that there needs to be a lot of education and we are lucky that the shell contract ex-spires because it means that the budget has changed and so, money that could have been, or that would have taken more to implement clean power sf, can now be put ward education and i think that education is the key part of teaching people the different between people of opt in and opt out. and i don't think that we should make it hard for people, so that people can do it for paper verses have to go on-line and i think that we theed to take into consideration, the people's access to the internet and the digital divide. and i think that, i would say community meetings. and i would say that the out reach to the communities and then, in areas where, the

district supervisors target as areas of like, clusters of people that, you know, maybe in a certain building, or neighborhood, that is even smaller, than what would be in a neighborhood committee, i think that having people go to them, and say, this is the process, here are the forms, we will help you form them out, right now, if this is not going to work for you. >> and i think that we also need to be smart about not-to-exceed rates and i mean that is really, where i think it, or sort of the rubber hits the road is not the exceed rates are too high, then it is going to make it hard for people, but if the not-to-exceed rate were actuallies, you know, and not a big difference in terms of you know, can you find cheaper power than pg&e that is where you are really going to see the people not opting out because the rates were so quite reasonable. >> thank you. >> great, thank you. and thank you for your

presentation. and next up, is ed lindo. >> thank you for considering both. if you look at my resume and my application and you may have a question of what have you done with environmental justice, and that is a fair question. my heart lies in san francisco. and i live here and i am a native and i grew up in vernal heights and i went to middle school with a lot of friends who grew up in bay view hunter's point and there are a lot of issues there and surrounding environmental justice. for me what you are doing today, pushing clean power sf is an issue that effects our community of color and the low income and middle class communities and the communities that i came from. and to see the politicalizing the many that others have pushed against the clean power sf has been disheartening, and it all makes sense and then you

figure out what does it take? it takes the community to step up. and hopefully, if both miss crews and i, are appointed, with the involvement that we have in the community, we can engage them, and we can say, this is why it is important, this is why, not only do we need people on this commission to care about it but we need the people who will push the city hall and push the mayor and say that we want the clean energy because it does effect us. and it effects us because we are the people of color and because we are the poor community and the example is the effect that is happening in bay view hunter as point and the friends who grew up with asthma and respiratory issues and i want to fight for that. and i went to law school, and i think that i am someone who is cap able in wanting to jump on board, and catch up to the learning curb, and let's push this, and let's make it work.

that is really all that i have for you and, if you have any questions, i am happy to take them. >> thank you. >> commissioners do you have anything? >> okay, a question from commissioner breed. >> just, if you could talk about lafco weighing in on she talked about the other issues and have you done the research on that? >> absolutely, and i know that one of the lion's share of what you do is clean power sf and having to spend the time speaking with jason and with the previous commissioners what

are the effects of the displacement on the communities and not just the financial issues but what effect does it have on the community and in creating the sustaining of a viable city and i think that these are issues that could be raised and we have an incredible team and someone who has been able to do the great research. and i think that the opportunities are there, and i think that i want to bring some ideas that are probably different from clean power sf but completely understand that it is really on the capacity of jason and the team here. and if you are not able to do that and you have the focus on clean power sf and so do it and if there are opportunities, working with many of you to see what we need to look at in comparison to other municipalities that can have a positive effect on san francisco. >> great, thank you. >> commissioner campos? >> thank you, i don't have a question and i just want to note that i have gotten to know, mr. lindo and i think

that this is another really strong applicant. who also brings a great deal of involvement in the community. and i think that besides the commitment to clean power, i think that there are a number of issues, around the affordability and other things where he has worked. so i am happy to support his appointment to one of the two seats as well and i will do so notwithstanding the support of lia pinentel i think that he is a strong candidate. >> okay, very good, commissioner mar? >> yeah, i just wanted to thank mr. lindo for the enthusiasm and the different types of expertise that he would bring to this body. and i wanted to thank you also for mentoring, younger people, from within the neighborhoods and coming from vernal heights and also knowing of other south east neighborhoods and i think that expertise will really help, and i did note that you

are working with a number of folks from the vernal heights neighborhood center and in tan tum to form a new group that is based on an allen moore novel, you are calling it a league of extraordinary men, and could you talk about mentoring younger people from our south east neighborhoods? >> yes. so the league of extraordinary men is really the imetus of trying to categorize of what the folks did for me in san francisco and i will be brutally honest, i was not the best student, i was the kid that you saw in the corner of mission and saint mary's hanging out with friends. but it took someone to grab me by the collar and say, hey, kid, you have something, you have not figured it out yet, but let's get you on track. and there are so many intelligent, smart, driven kids in these communities, that are

many, many times overlooked and the reality, i walk into board rooms, and i sit with the ceos and the cfos. and they look at me and they don't think that i came from that community but i try to thel both those in the board rooms and the kids that growing up in the streets are incredibly transferable. and i grew up with friends who sold drugs and friends who ended up in prison but the skills of being able to survive, in the inner city is a skill that at the end of the day, has allowed these kids to build resil ans, and that resil ans in many respects is entangible and something that when i tell them, when you go to interview and they ask you, what do you bring to this organization? and i tell them miracles because you were able to

survive, beyond the odds. and i tell them, since day one, there have been many bets placed against you. your goal is to make sure that the house loses. your goal is to make sure that you take their money that is bet up against you and i have one of mine here, and i am grateful for him to come and speak. but that is really what the organization is. and right now we have a pilot program working with young boys who have internships throughout the city and city hall and the puc and the police department, and getting paid, and we are establishing our curriculum for the boards from the eastern neighborhoods from the fillmore who without the program would not have an internship or a job for the summer. >> could i just ask a question, also, one of the advocates and organizers just posted

something on facebook, where she grew up in vernal heights and is talking about the gentrification going on before her eyes and as a white person wanting to be with the low income communities of color as well and i am just wondering how you look at work to pull up lower income communities in the work that you do. >> at the end of the day, we need to have our young students our young be a part of a new economy, we can't leave them in the dust. to think that somehow we need to import talent, from outside of san francisco area, and it is beyond me. and because there are so many high, potential youth in this city that if you kept them and said here are the tools and here are some mentors and this is how you win and whether they go on tech or law or public

service, what we need to do is provide exposure. and growing up, i did not know a single person who wore a suit to work, i went to law school and i did not meet an attorney until i was a sophomore in college, these kids need exposure and to be able to sit on the commission would be tremendous for me to go back and say that you have someone who in one small fraction represents you. and represents you on the issue that incredibly so impacts you in your community. i think that we need to give the youth now, but even the folks who are in the community now and tell them, hold on, hold on as tight as you can, because at the end of the day, if the bus or if there is a correction in the market, you ask who is still going to be here? and it is the people who want to live in san francisco. and that is why i do it. >> now i just wanted to respond

that i appreciate your support for people in the community, and organizations but i think that it needs to go bay beyond mentorship and truism from the individuals, i think that it has to be structural and policy-related changes to really address the displacement crisis going on. and i appreciate your responses. >> thank you for your presentation and we can go on to public comment. >> thank you. >> any member of the public who would like to comment, please come forward. and if we could, if there is more than one, we could form a line by the walls, after mr. brooks. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is hea selby and i am here in support of cynthia crews for the public seat of the commissioner, and going off the message a little bit, i am

also thrilled to this appears to be a wonderful candidate as well and looking at what you are working on, i believe that she will enhance the commission with her passion. she is passionate about good and independent government and she is an executive member and as you all know, just the voters and which was the guide that many san franciscans use to depend on. and she is a frequent speaker at mta board meetings and at the board of supervisors. and she is also passionate about the environment, and a passion that she comes by naturally from her time. she advocated for maintaining sunday meters that reduces pollution in san francisco and increases safety for bicyclists and pedestrians and provides

more parking for sunday drivers. and she is well versed of clean power sf and she is passionate of working in private industries to strengthen the accountability and citizenship. she serves both on the green team and also, as team captain of her companies giving comfort program, which provides low income cancer patients, with much needed and the most needed items that they have and finally she passionate about doing the research to form good decision making and having been involved and spoken out the choice voting and something that lasco voted on and community aggregate and filling vacancies at election tomorrow and i would urge you to apoint miss crews for the position of the public seat of the commission, thank you so

much. >> i am with the san francisco clean care advocates and both of these applicants sound great and i want to speak from my organization on behalf of cynthia being appointed to the primary seat and not anything against mr. lindo, but she was able to meet with many of us and we were able to really vet her qualifications. so, and our trust and i think that she will be good as a primary voting member. and also and it does not hurt to have someone from the group, mainly the league of pissed off voters, and we need the pissed off people to push it in the right direction and so that does not hurt either and with that said, i think that what mr. lindo was said was excellent and very good to hear

and hope that you will appoint him as well for the alternate seat and to both candidates i would say that on the clean power sf itself, which i personally worked on full time for ten years, and many others have worked on quite a bit, and believe me that you may have studied it but there is a huge learning curb on this stuff and please, both candidates sit down with and in depth with the advocates so that you can learn some of the deep intracaseys of this and i also would say to mr. lindo, regardless of which seat you get appointed to, it is crucial that we have the voice of people of colored communities and under served communities and working class communities on the discussion othat we make sure that those communities do not get left behind so even if you are an alternate it would be great to see you at every single hearing because we need that input, thanks. >> very good. next speaker please?

>> commissioners, usually supervisors, i realize that you are both and then some. i am here today representing the cr club, and the same old. and i want to let you know that the cr club supports cythia crews to the vacant seat six as it is known, her skill set, problem solving and planning and the ability to work on a team or independently, her involvement includes neighborhood act vifl in district five and voter registration and experience navigating san francisco, sometimes maze-like governmental processes, no insult intended. >> she has taken action or spoken out on several areas of interest and most importantly san francisco community choice aggregate problem, clean power sf, i want to add, and going off the script, which is dangerous and that her presentation was notable to me and even someone called some of

the grumpyist members, the people who are working on 20 years for the clean power that take time to get going and move tiny bits at a time were impressed by her enthusiasm and her story, and so i have noticed that personally about her and she has an energy about her and an ability to keep pushing through, even when the things are iffy and i am impressed by her and so happy pride and please support crews. >> thank you, next speaker, please? >> hello, good afternoon, my name is andy, brew and thank you supervisors and commissioners for hearing us today. and when i heard a few weeks ago that cythia wanted to certain san francisco on the local agency formation commission and i was very excited. i am pleased that the people want to sit on these commissions because they are very, very important to what is happening in our city, and serving the interests of the san franciscans and so