important that the full contingent of the board of supervisors who will be serving with this president of the board can vote on the nomination and elect this interim president of the board. it could though well be [speaker not understood] could leave december 1st. we'll have the district 3 supervisor set and sworn in at that time to actually vote on december 9th. that day seems like the best day to actually have our vote for the interim president. there was a story i saw just tweeted to me a couple hours ago at nbc, story saying how there has been a work by president chiu to heal, help heal this city, especially healing the city with, you

know, a race for the assembly that was actually very heated, very contested, often, you know, what was well beyond what we expected. people who had worked together for many, many years at city hall, to actually stage the vote today when that colleague is not here is not healing. it's about taking away the right we should all have to take part in making democracy happen in this very chamber. and, so, colleagues, i really hope that we do not vote today. i do not think it is what we should be doing. it's not collegial. it's not working out. i think next week one of our other members, i believe cohen is not going to be here. we shouldn't vote next week either because i don't think malia cohen and her district should be excluded from having a determination who is going to be the interim board president, but it makes sense is ~ that we are all going to be here

next week to vote. i don't think we should send this to committee. i think we should continue this item to the ninth, but send it to committee so we don't vote on it at all. i hope you join me in this effort. to have this vote today doesn't bode well for what this city is about, what this board represents as an institution that cares for collegiality, civility, and democracy. i hope you join me that we can send this to he committee. >> i understand, supervisor avalos, you're making a motion to send this item to committee? okay, is there a second to that motion? second by supervisor mar. discussion? supervisor wiener. >> thank you, president chiu. i will not be supporting the motion to send it to committee. i think we're ready to elect the board president today and we should move forward and elect that president today so that we can have a seamless

transition when president chiu takes the oath of office in the california assembly at noon on december 1st. rather than having eight days with no board president and convening on the ninth with no board president, we'll have a board president ready to go. it makes all the sense in the world to do it now. and i have to say, i know there's been a lot of rhetoric and drama stirred up by some people about the scheduling of this vote. it's a very standard political tactic. if you don't agree to say that some sort of nefarious plot going on, there's something undermining democracy. there's something not being collegial, that is absolutely no basis for any of that. the fact is that supervisor campos today chose to go on

vacation instead of coming to the board meeting, to leave the country on vacation instead of coming to the board meeting. i would love to leave the country and go on vacation today, but i'm here at this board meeting. he had every right in the world to do that. he just went through a very, very heated and i'm sure exhausting race for the state assembly. he had every right in the world to choose to take a well deserved vacation. but to suggest that because one colleague chose to take a vacation instead of attending the board meeting that somehow it's nefarious or not collegial or anti-democratic for the board to proceed with the people -- with the business of the people, i just don't agree with that. and the fact is that between now and the end of the year, it is highly likely that we will be operating with only 10 supervisors for each and every meeting. we know that next week.

but in addition, i don't want to predict what the mayor is going to do or what time he's going to pursue, but it may very well be the case that president chiu's appointment or successor is not appointed until january, in which case we will be short one supervisor in the month of december as well. and, so, that means that no matter what day we hold this vote there is a high likelihood that one district will not be represented. and, so, to suggest that this has something to do with disenfranchising supervisor campos is just completely disconnected from the reality of the situation because any day that we schedule this vote, there will almost certainly be one district that is not represented that day. and i'm all for doing it at a time when we'll then have a seamless transition since we have to choose one of those days, why not do it so that we

can seamlessly transition from one board president to another. that to me is good government. that is democratic. that is collegial and that's how i will be voting today. >> supervisor yee. >> thank you, president chiu. so, this is my opinion. it's not based on rhetoric or anything. it's how i feel. we have a situation -- it's an odd situation and we're faced with it. and basically we have ten members at the board of supervisors here today. we're probably going to have ten next week and if we were to do an action, a similar action the first thing in december, we're going to have 10. my feeling about this is that, yeah, we might have 10. the 10 that i prefer to have

vote on this would be the 10 people that are going to be here in january and february and so forth. it's not that take away from president chiu or anything, but the fact that we're going to have to work with whoever the president is, that's my preference, that we get the 10 people that are going to be here in january to get to a vote. the issue of whether or not it's seamless or not, you can argue whether it what seamless. however, when somebody wins an election and they happen to be lehmaning ~ leaving office as a president, there's usually no -- there could be an empty seat for a while until you get to january and actually vote for the president. so, i'm comfortable with that. there is a.m. only a few days we're actually not doing any business for us to vote on a

president in december. so, again, i don't want to have this be labeled as if i'm thinking more of is it really campos or is it somebody else? it doesn't matter to me whether this individual that's not here today. it could be somebody else i could say the same thing. and i feel strongly about that. >> supervisor avalos. >> i'll stand up. so, let's just say it's a fact, exclusion of david campos, hegoing to vote for interim president of the board and david campos can't take part in it and we have the ability to actually schedule time when we can actually have the vote with him present, then we should do that. that's democratic. that's collegial. you can say it's not democratic

what we're doing today, it's not. there is an opportunity that we had to show a great deal of grace today about how we're going to have a vote for the board president. we can vote with grace so we can vote without grace. and i actually on the fence right now deciding myself whether i walk out in protest because one of my colleagues is being excluded from voting when we should be voting all together. and if he's going to be excluded, maybe i'll walk out and not vote either. it's not a statement about anyone who could win or didn't have a voice to win. i don't even think david campos voting creates an advantage for anyone in particular. david campos would choose to vote for. but i believe it's just more about fairness and democracy, civility, and collegiality.

i'm considering walking out. [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. supervisor breed. >> thank you. i won't be supporting the motion to send this item to committee. today in the transportation authority plans and programs committee, supervisor mar and i waited 15 minutes in order to have a quorum to start the meeting. as a supervisor, we get these schedules and we actually approve the schedule for the meetings that we have and to make the public wait because we're late or to not move forward with doing the public's business because we decided to take a vacation during a time when we have a board meeting? i mean, just like supervisor wiener, i would have loved to go away during this week rather than be here dealing with some of the challenges of the job

which we all deal with on a day-to-day basis. but the reality is i plan my schedule around my responsibilities as a member of the board of supervisors. and, so, whether someone chooses to take a vacation during the day that a meeting wad scheduled or not, i'm not judging them for doing it. but i am not willing to put the people's business on hold in order to wait till someone comes back from vacation. and the second thing is i think it would be more responsible for us to make this decision today or make this decision next tuesday, but definitely this decision should be made before david chiu leaves the presidency period. there should never be a time where we don't have a member of this body acting as president to carry on the business of the board of supervisors. so, i won't be supporting the motion. >> supervisor breed, i just wanted to say as the chair of

that committee this morning, one of our colleagues had a legitimate health issue and these things come up. but this is an incredibly important decision that we have to make that i'm in agreement with lots of my colleagues that we should be really paying attention that all of us should be here. but let me go to president chiu. >> supervisor mar, i understand, but it's not the first time that it happened, and it happens on a regular basis and it is frustrating, not from just me, but members of the public as well. thank you. >> president chiu. (applause) >> thank you, mr. chair. colleagues, i believe that a vote today to select an interim board president is important for the board as suggested by our board clerk angela [speaker not understood], to ensure a smooth transition on december 1st. if we don't select a board president this week or next, there will be no board president between december 1st and december 9th. and i do want to respond to supervisor avalos's perspective. we did try to find a date that would work for everyone. unfortunately there is no such

date that's going to work. there are ongoing board president duties and while hopefully a vacancy will not have a significant impact, it could, and i don't see why we should take that risk. choosing before hand also allows one of our colleagues to prepare to chair the december 9th meeting and i do think it is our responsibility to consider this question before the board today. and from my perspective as a representative for district 3, i think it's important also to represent my district. we also know, colleagues, it takes six votes to have someone selected as their board president so the fact that we do not have a colleague does not impact that vote total. we still need to achieve that vote roll. so, with that i will not be supporting the motion to refer this to committee. >> so, colleagues, we have a motion on the floor. shall we have a roll call on that, madam clerk?

the motion, supervisor avalos? >> i'll make my statement about it. i've been saying for over a week now before david campos had left that this should not be scheduled, we should not be voting today. this is not -- if we were actually to delay the vote and there was a gap between having a board president of a few days, that is not going to create a hardship for the city. i think that the clerk's office can still function without having a board president, but i think what's important overriding is having democracy and believing we are working the way the public expects us to work and we expect to work with one another. and i think that we're giving that away today by forcing a vote on ourselves when one of our colleagues cannot be here to be part of it. and i do believe that to me it's also important that the people who will be serving on

the board take part in the vote to elect the interim president. it could very well be on december 9th that we'll have a new supervisor in district 3 to take part in that vote. and certainly when it comes to january 8, that can happen as well. and the mayor has the greatest advantage to appoint someone because we couldn't get on the ballot measure to have a vote for appointments, having it go to the people. the mayor is going to have an appointment. he has the advantage to decide who is going to be the board president by selecting that perp. ~ person. i don't think it's going to be disenfranchisement of district 3. with that, let's vote. >> supervisor mar? >> i wanted to say to be fair to president chiu, our clerk angela did issue that memo. there is a rationale for us to follow through with voting today. but i wanted to say as your

colleague, supervisor chiu, for now six years on this body, you're a friend for since the '90s, that this is not the way to leave this body. it's creating more division a we're being forced to vote. i'm in support of all of us that will have to work together in the next couple of weeks to select a permanent board president for the next two years, but i don't think it's in the spirit of collegiality as others have said. i don't intend to participate in a vote today to select somebody because i think it's illegitimate and it's not fair to this body and it leaves us in a more divided manner than we should be. we should be moving forward in a united manner. so, i urge you and appeal to you not to force this vote today because i do not intend to participate in a vote that's illegitimate to me. >> supervisor wiener. >> i wasn't intending to speak again, but i'm sorry, i have to

respond to those last two comments. to the extent that anything is happening today that is either divisive or not collegial, it's because people chose to make it that way ~. we will only move forward if six members of this board vote to move forward. this is not president president chiu forcing anything on anyone. he is one vote out of 11 and, so, to suggest that this is somehow forcing anything or this is -- it's divisive to ask the body whether six of us want to move forward or that it is somehow divisive, that is -- it's been the reaction that has been divisive. that is what has been divisive. and the fact is that because of the vacation and because of the likely vacancy continuing throughout december, there will be one district who will not have a representative participating in this

short-term interim pick. and it's not about the individual sitting in this chamber. it's about the people that we represent. so, in term of who is going to be remaining, maybe it's better to disenfranchise district 3. that's 70 thou people who are not going to have a supervisor voting. ~ 70,000 however we do it, there's no district that's more important than any district. each district has 70, 75,000 residents of the city who deserve to be represented. all things being equal, anyone is going to be absent, why not do it so we have a seamless transition from one board president to another and there is nothing uncollegial about that, there is nothing divisive about that. that is highly democratic and we should be rejecting this notion and moving forward today. >> supervisor cohen. >> there is one point i definitely want to highlight and remind folks, we are

representatives of the city and county of all of san francisco. everything we ran on, every issue incorporates districts 6, 3, 9, so on and so forth. [speaker not understood] to say there is no representation. we operate in the capacity all the time. so, in my mind this is -- we're still acting in line. correct me if i'm wrong, madam clerk. we are representatives of the entire city, not just our respective districts. thank you. >> colleagues, any further discussion on supervisor avalos's motion to refer this item back to committee? okay, on the motion, madam clerk. >> supervisor kim? aye. kim aye. supervisor mar? mar aye. supervisor tang? tang no. supervisor wiener? wiener no. supervisor yee? yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed?

breed no. suffer chiu? chiu no. supervisor cohen? cohen no. supervisor farrell? farrell no. there are four ayes and 6 nos. >> motion fails. [gavel] >> and with that, colleagues, unless there is any discussion, why don't we go on the motion at item 45. whether we should approve the motion scheduling the board of supervisors to sit as a committee on the whole today november the 18th. unless there is more discussion, madam clerk, call the roll. >> supervisor kim. kim no. supervisor mar. mar no. supervisor tang? tang aye. supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee? yee no. supervisor avalos? avalos no. supervisor breed? breed aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor cohen. cohen aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. there are 6 aye and 4 nos. >> the motion to sit as a committee of the whole is

approved. [gavel] >> madam clerk, can you please call items 38 to 40. >> item 38 is the board of supervisors convening the committee of the whole for a public hearing of persons interested on commenting on the nomination and the opening of the election for the office of board president in the event a vacancy occurs to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending january 8, 2015 at 12 p.m. item 39 is the item to receive nomination for president of the board and item 40 is the election of the president of the board to fill the vacancy. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, as you know, at noontime on december the first i will be sworn in in the state assembly so that means after 11:59 a.m. on that date i will be no longer serving as your board president. so, we will be holding a hearing to receive public comment on nomination and the opening of election for the office of the board president

to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending january the 8th 2015 at 12 p.m. madam clerk, could you please read other item related to the public comment on this period? >> item 38 is public comment on nominations and the election to fill the vacancy and the board president's office for the reneighborvtioning term ending january 8th at 12 p.m. items 39 and 40 are the items associated with receiving nominations and election. members of the public may address the board for up to 2 minutes on the nomination of a board member to fill a vacancy in the office of president of the board. there are -- if there are public speakers utilizing interpretive assistance, they will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. if you would like to use the overhead projector, you are welcome to. >> so, at this time any member of the public that wishes to speak with regards to the nomination and election of any board member, you are free to step up to the mic.

good afternoon, president chiu, members of the board of supervisors. i believe that we need a board president that continue with the excellent job that president chiu has done. being a staunch supporter of women's rights and speaking out about domestic violence, i believe that the next board president should be true to those values and i would like to see supervisor london breed as the next board president. thank you. >> next speaker. good evening. i would just like to say that i agree with everything that [speaker not understood] said. i know how important as i said

before the work the women's community is doing, and i know we have supervisors who have been actively involved with helping us with legislation and getting power work done and like [speaker not understood], i support london breed. thank you. >> next speaker. i hope you walk out. if you do, i hope that stops the vote from happening tonight and i hope that you take -- doesn't there have to be a majority vote? doesn't have to be five of you? we'll makeup the rules as we go along, that's fine. i hope you walk out. the ones that have integrity [chuckling]. i recall when supervisor gavin newsom was introducing care not

cash and the consternation on then board president tom ammiano as he went on for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minute. i actually kind of think you handled this pretty well today. i think -- might refer to someone pinball at that time, but i want you to know i meant it only in the deepest level of greatest respect. >> next speaker. good evening. i just wanted to express my support of supervisor london breed for our future president of the board of supervisors. i think it's important that we have a strong woman who has been a very strong and vocal supporter of the arts, of communities of color, of the lgbt community and everything that is good and wonderful about san francisco. and i think she will make a wonderful president of the board of supervisors. >> are there any other members of the public that wish to speak in this public comment period? okay, seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel]

>> madam clerk, could you please read the next item? >> mr. president, supervisor avalos is on the roster. >> supervisor. >> actually, i'll do it now. just based on public comment, i'm not clear if i'm going to vote or not, but i actually have been in the position of having been nominated for president of the board before and it's very special. so, just want to say to people who might not be voting for, good luck and i hope that you serve us well if you're voted today. >> supervisor farrell. >> thank you. to be clear on item 39 now? >> yes, we are on item 39. and at this time nominationses are open for the office of the board president. before proceeding with nominations, i'd like our clerk to please describe the rules around making nominations. >> thank you, mr. president. the method of making nomination

shall include the following. a member may nominate themselves. a second for a nomination is welcome but not required. acceptance and withdraw, members do not have to accept a nomination and can withdraw their names at any time. nominees must stay in the chamber. they may vote for themselves. members may nominate one person. there is only one seat to fill, nominations may be reopened. members may withdraw their name or the name that they have nominate and had may nominate another supervisor. nominations can be reopened. it may be done by a majority vote. thank you, mr. president. >> okay. colleagues, with that, unless there are any questions, we will now proceed with the making of nominations for the office of president of the board of supervisors for the term ending january 8th, 2015. ly call on supervisors as i see their names on the roster. supervisor farrell. >> thank you, president chiu.

colleagues, tonight i would like to put forward the nomination of supervisor katy tackvction to be our interim board president. ~ i believe supervisor tang has done a great job representing us at the board of supervisors since being appointed by mayor lee, now standing her own election two times in district 4. supervisor tang has a great background here in city hall in term of serving in the mayor's budget office, serving as an aide for supervisor then carmen chu in district 4 and is now a district 4 representative. i believe supervisor tang has been a collegial member of this board. i think will serve us well during this interim period and lead us and shepherd us through into january. so, i'm going to make the motion for supervisor katy tang as our interim board president and as a corollary to that motion, i understand i need to make -- include within that

motion that supervisor tang first sit as a chairman of our board at the december 9th board meeting. >> supervisor farrell has nominated supervisor tang for the office of board president to sit for the first time on december the ninth. let me ask if there are any other nominations. are there any other nominations? okay. there being no further nominations, the nominations are closed. [gavel] >> madam clerk, could you please call the next item. >> the next item is the election for the president of the board. members will now proceed with the election for the president of the board of supervisors to become effective at the swearing in for the state assembly of the current board president. >> and, madam clerk, could you

please describe the rules of this election? >> there are no absent abstention or passes. all supervisors must vote when a question is posed. the lowest vote getter is not obligated to withdraw their name and they will be included on subsequent ballots unless the nominee chooses to withdraw their own name. at any time a nominee may withdraw their own name, the board can adopt a motion to reopen nomination with a majority vote as the president stated. in the event that no nominee receives a majority vote there shall be an additional roll call until a nominee receives a majority vote. and then the supervisors who have been nominated for the election to the office of board president is supervisor tang. so, when your name is called, please indicate your preference from among the nominees stated. in this case there is only one. again, if no supervisors received a majority of the votes we'll proceed to the next round until a nominee with draws or if there is another