interest and i hope this doesn't dissuade you those that aren't successful today and you will continue to serve san francisco. on the rules committee one thing that i take seriously is creating a commission that is balanced that represents the ethnic and gender make up of san francisco and i am concerned about the entertainment commission. it is largely -- it's actually all male with the exception of one woman and largely caucasian and asian. i think there is one latino and one representative for lgbt community and so as i listen to the response -- as i read the response and listen to the questions i did ask a question about what you bring to the commission and one of the things that is important to me and that i did hear was an acknowledgment that dory spoke of bringing

diversity to this commission and that's one of my core values that doesn't change and this is my first official meeting with the rules committee and moving forward this is what i am looking forward to every member that is listening to this committee meeting is that we need to be creating policy bodies that can create and gender parity as well as ethnic diversity and that also includes class, diversity. it includes sexual orientation and every other category we san franciscans value, so i am here today to support dory and this committee also kept me up -- this agenda kept me up as well because we have several outstanding members of the san francisco community that's stepping up. now, one thing we inventory talked about is item.

>> >> haven't talked about is item 7. i would love some of the men to be on the equal pay advisory board because that body is represented by women and women of color so you can imagine it's an interesting balance we're all trying to create, and these commissions are important because they shape policies for the department and that's a pretty influential position to be in outside of being an elected member of a san francisco body so i want to encourage paul wells who i know fairly well from the work on the radio and have done work as well as with jeremy wallenberg -- all three of the guys have impressive letters of recommendation and i am telling you must have pushed every person that you know and certainly my phone, my text, my email, my city email -- just i received a lot of positive responses on your behalf so you

guys should feel good about that. also i wanted to make a statement that it's hard for me to support people who don't necessarily do outreach to my office so that also was is and will always be a factor into how i determine who i'm going to be supporting, so for those members that are here today and listening at home and maybe in the future coming into this body it's always important to reach out to each member of the body to express your interest so we can hear directly from you. thank you mr. chair. >> thank you. again i want to thank everyone who has applied for the seat and what's really common for all of you is your public service and strong and recognized by members of the public as well so can we have a motion to support theodora marie caminong. >> all right so moved. motion to approve theodora marie

caminong for seat one of the entertainment commission as a committee report to the full board. >> and we can second that mr. supervisor cohen. >> yes that's correct. >> and colleagues take that without objection. thank you. >> congratulations. >> [gavel] >> congratulations. this is a committee report as well so colleagues thank you without objection. short pause. we will do two minutes. is two minutes all we need? i need to go to my office real quick too.

>> okay. we are back and madam clerk if you would could pleads call the next item. >> item number 7 is considering appointing three members of equal terms for the equal pay advisory board. there are three seats and five applicants. >> great. i would like to open it up with some comments from supervisor campos' office. she is not able to be here but asked that i go over a little bit of what the appointment seat is going to be about. supervisor campos as you know spearheaded the legislation that created the equal pay advisory board and asked me to read this statement because he's not here and when i say short it's his short. i am excited there are five incredible applicants for the

board of supervisors seats on the equal pay advisory board. the work that you will do on this body will be critical -- if we could quiet the room down a little bit please. there's a lot of noise in the audience. i appreciate that. it's a lot better -- the work that the body will do is critical to implementing the law that we passed last year which i believe is a major step forward insuring equal pay for equal work for thousands of san franciscans. woe know that after the passage of the equal pay act and years ago and women be given the same in pay the gender gap exists. census data since 2011 will earn 77 cents compared to man and greater gap with latino and

african-americans and the gap is wider and women comprise most of the labor force in the united states and this is extremely significant. it means women are having a hard time keeping up with this and means women and having a hard time paying rent or saving for a rainy day or retiremment. this will have impacts on women and families and society as a whole. as a reminder the legislation that we approved last year has a new section to the administrative code, non discrimination provisions that requires all city contractors with at least 20 employees to

give a report to the commission. the report will have summaries and identified by sex and race. the legislation creates an equal pay advisory board to which the amazing applicants today are applying. the board is charged with designing a data collection system to identify if discrimination is taking place at a work place and lessen the administrative burden on city contractors. the mayor's office and the commission on the status commission on the status of women will also appoint people to the group. after the recommendations are submitted they will collect wage data for city contractors. if they believe that wage discrimination has occurred at a business it can investigate that business to determine whether workers receive equal pay for equal work. if the commission dsms

that the employer has violated the law the commission can recommend that the city department working with the business issue penalties or suspend or cancel a contract. they will report to the board of supervisors on the data it collects. any trends in pay discrimination, the number of investigations have commenced based on reports received and the number of contractors that were penalized for violating equal pay laws. discrimination based on sex and race is already prohibited in the city's administrative code and by federal law. however the human rights commission only enforces the provision when individuals file allegations of unequal pay. it is hard for women to determine whether they are victims of wage discrimination because of the 2011 survey from the institute of research found

that much of the information is discouraged and/or prohibitd and could lead to punishment. there is a culture of secrecy around compensation in work places and throughout this country. this legislation is groundbreaking because it provides the human rights commission the data it needs to proactively investigate businesses without relying on individual workers' complaints and ensure equal pay for equal work at hundreds of businesses that contribute city and county -- contract with the city and county of san francisco and i want to thank all of the applicants for applying. today we have a number of people who are applying. we have wendolyn aragon, rachael langston, utuma belfrey, tyra fennell, marisa diaz and so what i would like to do is each person can come up as your name is called and wendolyn

aragon will be first and i want to thank you for your interest in coming forward to serve on the equal pay committee. >> good afternoon. i am wendy and i am applying for seat one which represents an area where wage discrimination is common for women. i work with the construction industry and for 10 years. i went to college on the backs of my working parents and when i applied for a job and offered a reception position at the company my parents weren't pleased. my grandfather had been a construction laborer for many years and my mother knew it was a fostering climate for women and women of color. a year later i was promoted to a admin role and i learned building code and learn plans and went to osha and day-to-day operations. regardless i was always seen as an assistant to

my company. even after i was laid off and start by own business it was hard to pick up clients because many saw my experience and asked me this question how did you learn this? thinking all i was going to do is sit behind a phone and answer it and work on the computer, but when the opportunity came for me to go back to work full time i had some offers and my clients and one which was my old employer and offered my old job at part time at the hourly wage i made five years ago. when i said i wanted full time they said they would work in anotherad min position for me. another client said they could do better. they asked if i wanted to work for them full time and did the same thing at my old company along with all of the permits and building codes that i did on my own for so long. they asked me to submit a number that i thought i was worth for time and

construction. i gave them the number. you're always told to aim higher. i received a letter back that day with $10,000 more than i had asked for. they felt that 10 years in construction with what i had accomplished was worthy of anyone who had a construction management degree which i didn't have and they offered me job as assistant project manager to work the way up to project manager later. i worked my out of the ad min pool and it's rare in construction and the company i work for has 50% women and no one has a title on the business card and our project ad mins who are administrative assistants have hands on work on the projects. they pay a living

wage. we have a model of what i the construction company could look like. i know what i upon make is what i am worth and equivalent to someone in my position who has the skills that i have would be making whether they're a man or woman and to me that is really important. i think i bring this experience and in this industry and i am asking to be on the board because i am here from the beginning. from the first press conference i was there i stood outside the stoor with 100 women and signs not one more day without equal pay and this legislation so this board has been in my heart for a long time and i am standing on the shoulders of working class women in my family to have a successful career, not a job

they enjoy and i love, great pay, great benefits and great employers and i want every women in construction to have that especially because there is a huge bearing on the city and contracts go to the city and i can tell you a lot of them don't see eye to eye how my employer does business and it's important to support women in a position like this. >> thank you. supervisor tang is the first to ask questions. >> thank you. again this is a global question for everyone coming up for this particular board because it's a new one and the discussion on the actual legislation we pushed a lot of the conversation how it is we're going to implement the law that we pass to this board so if all of the applicants can address that and how they envision carrying out the board of that legislation. thank you. >> so for me i have shown i

think it's really important to have women willing to fight for what they believe in, women with leadership skills paving the way. i am the chair of the advisory commission for the utilities commission and the first women of color for that seat and when i came on heavily male and heavily caucasian. and i helped to diversify that group and people that are willing to push the envelope and make sure women are paid and hold them accountable construction it's important when we have companies bidding affordable housing and projects and i understand capital improvements and make sure that women who are project managers are paid as much and women who are admins and people

in the field -- so i think bringing my experience and knowing what the construction industry is like is really important and pushing for diversity. >> thank you. are there any particular steps that the board members can collectively take? for example how you look at data -- are there concrete actions that the board can take to achieve the legislation? >> the board is new but i think what is important is looking at different companies and their histories and hiring patterns and how often they promote women and making sure they're held accountable even if that means auditing them and when we look at the numbers look at my company and how they do it. whether they say we can't afford to pay them more. you can say there are smaller companies like

the one i work for that can and do and that's a terrible execution. >> >> and -- excuse and the track record and i hope i answered the question. >> i am not familiar with the staffing that will supporting the equal pay advisory board and seems like i am trying to figure out -- you can let me know what role do you see the members of the board play and what staffing level is going to be and if it's short how will you have the time to do the work that the board is charged with? >> so the staffers i have for the advisory committee (inaudible) at puc and i hope we have staff like that and they're involved and making sure they're successful and members go on [inaudible] that's going to help

them succeed on the board and again the questions are hard to answer because the board hasn't existed before so we don't know what the future is going to bring but i want to make sure that we have staff working with us. as many people know i devote a lot of time to causes and i put 110% in. when i asked my employer and how they feel that i applied for the board they're supported me and give me the time to do the work. >> thank you. if no other questions we can go on to the next applicant rachael langston. >> all right. [inaudible]

thank you perfect. okay. good afternoon and thank you very much for this opportunity. i am applying -- my name is rachael langston and applying for seat two of the equal pay advisory board. just to tell you about my qualifications. i graduated from the university of california burke ree school of law in 2008 and after graduation i began my career at the law center here in san francisco. the employment law center's focus is helping low income workers and to improve their lives through direct services, litigation and also policy work. my particular -- the focus of my particular work at elc is in our gunder equity and lgbt gender rights program and i represent individuals who faced

discrimination and harassment and other things based on sex, gender orientation, gender, gender identity and include women and women of colors and working methods and lgbt individuals and women struggling to maintain their entertainment while going through crisis with abuse and stalking. we help people with a variety of issues including equal pay, state and federal equal pay violations. however it's interesting because the mearts they worked on have come to me in different ways. it's usually not someone immediately recognizing i'm being paid less than the male counter part and coming forward and making that allegation right out of the box because people so rarely have that information. it takes investigating through

legal means, discovery, things like that to really find hey looks like this isn't right here. people are afraid to ask the questions. they have been threatened by the employers that they shouldn't ask questions about salary and pay in the work place so they don't want to rock that boat and what is so important about this legislation is that it will help workers to not do that. it will take the own us from workers so they don't have put themselves in a difficult position that could possibly cost them their job to get the information they need to determine whether they're being paid equitably. because of the importance of equal pay and the related importance of pay transparency i have made it a point to involve myself in initiatives regarding equal pay including the bay area equal pay collaborative through which i've and other members of the

collaborative have conducted several presentations for the community including workers, attorneys and others about equal pay laws, and how workers and employers both recognize pay inequities. in closing i would say one thing i love about california -- i am originally from texas and san francisco trans plant -- i know. >> that's a very big state. >> i'm sorry? >> texas is a very big state. >> west texas, lubbock, yes. one thing i have appreciated i have been here since 2005. came here for law school and i really appreciate the diversity and the social consciousness that we have here and i would be really honored and thrilled to be a part of that by being a part of this advisory board. san francisco especially has been so progressive when it comes to

worker rights i feel like to help workers here because they have laws that support them and i would really like to be part of making sure that this is one of those laws and that we can make it work both for workers and contractors. thank you. >> thank you very much. supervisor tang. >> so just the same question i am asking everyone but if you could state some of the concrete steps this board could take to further the goals of the legislation and again because it's so new i do understand that but it's a really great opportunity to take advantage of this situation to guide what this body will be able to do so if you could address that. thank you. >> sure. one thing that is helpful to me in going forward is that i have attended press conferences and all of the hearings on this legislation. i have heard concerns from everyone from human right

commission board members to workers to contractors who would come under the umbrella of this bill so i have a lot of opportunity to hear their concerns and to file them away and hopes to be part of the board addressing those when we come up with the data process so there are a lot of concerns. i learned how and whether the gathering will be onerous and i think our goal is to make it an effective data collection process while also making it feasible. we don't want to make it be something that adds a lot of burdens to employers. we want it to be something to help them realize and maybe self correct their pay policies as well as data gathering process that really protects the workers, and what's really nice about this board we have a really good range of seats of

appointees that can help with that. we have someone who is well versed in data gathering and what's important there. we have someone who is well versed in human resources and who in the world of the contractor. people representing workers so we have -- what is so wonderful about this board we're coming together before finalizing this law to really bring all the voices to the table and find out what the best and -- the best most worth while method is for data collection and so i look forward to hopefully working with those other members to kind of further some of the goals and address some of the concerns i heard in the hearings about this legislation. >> thank you for your question supervisor tang. similar to my last question the board members would be charged with doing investigation work and what do you think needs to be in place