continue to collaborate and making sure we're serving women and girls, as a mother of three girls in san francisco, i know supervisor tang and supervisor cohen, we've been lucky to have powerful leaders with women and power and my girls have benefited and have been before the commission on the status of women, it's an important commission, not just for women but for girl, debbie is someone bho sees the magic in girl, the potential and is capable of delivering a much more ek wit nl world, their work is important and debbie mesloh will be a huge asset, so i hope that you would support her. thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> good morning, avalos, vice chair tang, supervisor cohen, i stand before you in strong support as debbie mesloh on the commission of the status of women, she brings a deep

knowledge about the city having served in the district attorney's office but also at the state level, having worked for the attorney general and then also having worked at the federal level. that's the kind of experience that we could benefit from on the commission and oftentimes, we work in silos, the private sector here and the public sector over here and i think debbie has a lot to contribute in terms of increasing our reach into the private sector. we realized several years ago that three out of four women work in the private sector, not the public sector and that we needed to do some work helping our sisters in the private sector, so i'm looking for strong leadership from debbie mesloh on our commission. thank you very much. >> thank you. if there are no other members of the public to comment, we'll close public comment on this item. and supervisor tang? >> thank you, i couldn't think of a better person to have been

nominated for this position, and so i'm really excited to see the work that will come out of ms. mesloh if she's appointed this commission, so i would like to make a motion to approve the mayor's appointment of debbie mesloh on the commission on the status of women. >> and i would like to second that motion. >> i will be gladly supporting the motion and colleague, we can take that without objection, this will be a committee report. >> we need to amend the motion first to strike the rejecting. >> alright, so i will just amend my motion to say i would like to amend the motion to approve the mayor's appointment of debbie mesloh to the commission on the status of women and as amended forward it to the full board as a committee report. >> seconded by supervisor cohen, we'll take that without objection. >> thank you. next item, please. >> item number 2 is a hearing

to consider appointing one member, for a one year term yet to be determined to the energy efficiency coordinating committee. there is one seat and one applicant. >> is mr. diaz here. >> good morning, chair avalos, and committee member, my name is antonio diaz, i'm here regarding my application to be applied to the energy efficiency coordinating committee. i work at [inaudible] people ork sneezing to demand environmental and economic rights, an organization which next year will be organizing for environmental justice here in san francisco primarily in the distributes, i've been the organizations director since 19ed 98 our organization was involved closely with supervisor mar in initially formulating the establishment of this committee. i i think part of the reason we

were engaged in those efforts is that as we all know, as san francisco continues to be a leader in environmentalism, as san francisco has aggressive goals to achieve 100% zero waste by 2020, to lessen its carbon footprint in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emission, etc., etc., we need to make sure the city also pays attention to how low-income community, communities of color, environmental justice communities also benefit from these efforts in terms of jobs,? terms of lower energy bills, in terms of co-benefits in terms of reduction of pollutants in our neighborhoods. i would say that would be the core component of my work over the 25 some years that i have worked on environmental justice issues, that is to not only address the environmental injustices our neighborhoods first, getting rid of the bad but help ensure that we create healthy, thrive communities for

all bringing in the good. i believe the work that this energy efficiency coordinating committee will do will help move that forward. i thank you for considering my application to this committee, seat 2, and i ask you for your support for full consideration of the board. >> thank you very much, no questions from myself or the committee. we'll open this up for any members of the public. >> employment, application, jobs [inaudible] that too, separation of right, county jail, three years, again, [inaudible]. (indiscernible). >> my wife, how will she feel, how can she stay alone at night by herself?

[inaudible]. i mean, it should be corrections with philosophy, science, mission, meditation, recreation, good part in [inaudible] which is truly necessary. 100 years old, that [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. if there are no other members of the public to comment, we will close public comment. colleague, i realize if we approve mr. diaz, we need to have a residency waiver and i'm in fully supportive of that, mr. diaz has been working for many, many years, he's been working since 1998 and has a great deal of expertise in this field and would be a benefit to

the energy efficiency committee. >> i'm fine with that decision as well, so then i would like to first request the residency waiver and then move to appoint antonio diaz's seat 2 of the energy efficiency energy committee and send that on to the full board as a report. >> it's seconded by supervisor cohen and we'll take that colleagues without objection. next item, please. >> item number 3 is a hearing to consider appointing one member, ternl ending january 31, 018 to the mental health board, there's one seat and two applicants. >> and i have in my notes that this is going to be continue today the next meeting? >> or did you want to continue it to the call of the chair? >> do we have any applicants here? there's one here today? >> i don't believe so. >> okay, so then let's continue to the call of the chair. we'll have to have public comment first on this item. public comment is open for item number 3, it's about the

appointment for the mental health board. >> the wisdom for all officials, the first government officials. (indiscernible). >> thank you for your relatively appropriate comments. we will continue this item if we could have a motion to continue? >> so moved. >> okay, and we'll take that without objection. thank you. next item, please. >> item number 4 is a hear tog consider appointing one member, term ending january 31, 2016 to the veterans affairs commission. there's one seat and six applicants. >> very good, thank you, and we have one seat to fill with six applicants and this is actually a really good time to hear what

people's concerns and issues and what their goals are for the veterans affairs commission and we'll start off with mr. caldera. >> good morning, chair avalos and vice chair tang and supervisor cohen, my name is john caldera and today's my birthday, today i'm 51 years old. i love san francisco and i lived here for more than half of my life and in that service, i've been committed to our veterans of san francisco. for the last 16 years, i've been a member of the american legion and served two terms of the veterans affair commissions. wi first joined in 2007, i found the commission to be very much of a gold old boy network and i was met with quite a great deal of resistance and in 2008, a document was introduced to attack me personally and that document was submitted to the board of supervisors but it

was fraudulent in the fact that the author of that document introduced paragraphs that were not known to be seen -- the veterans affairs commissioners did not see that, that's when i went back to the commission the very next month and told them this, you've been played, and that is why that letter has had no action taken whatsoever, that letter died when it was confronted as being falsified. as a gala teen know man who has served the city for many years, i have taken by swings and arrows and there are people who will take their shots at me and add to that this long brown hair, there are people that will see me as a threat or a challenge, i think that is my strength as coming to this commission and the fact that this commission needs more diversity than ever before. you have more straight white men on this commission than in the last ten years. this commission does not have an african american male on this commission. we live in the the city that

asks does blaok lives matter, currently the commission does not have a latino on this commission. i'm looking at three diverse committee members on this committee. i bring you my offer of service to this commission as a voice that is needed. and one other concern is i was accused of threatening the mayor and i don't know where that came from because i have a great deal of respect for the mayor and i've never threatened the mayor and i want to publicly say that, i don't know why that was even introduced last time but i certainly would like to hear why that was introduced but i have never threatened our mayor. i've been in company with him on many occasions and i have a great deal of respect for him so, that came totally out of the blue for me. >> thank you. we just heard you about a month ago as well when you were here,

so i think it's still pretty fresh with us as well. >> thank you, i would just like to add finally, one of the things that i find very surprising which was never mentioned before is the fact that you've received a letter or a certificate of honor on behalf of our president of the board of supervisors, that was never mentioned, you received a letter of support pr the san francisco veterans for peace, that was never mentioned and i believe just recently, you received a alerted on behalf of the membership of the harvey mills democratic lgbt club and i want to make sure that was mentioned on record. for those of us on the lgbt community, we are standing within hollow ground and i know i don't need you to remind you that the last person that was assassinated in these chambers was harvey mills, on the statute that's in this building, if you look and look

to the extreme right corner tha, has a shinier gloss, that's because those of us that believe in civil right and is those of us that believe in the work that harvey mills did touch that in reverence and touch it when we have business to conduct inside city hall, so thank you very much for your consideration. >> thank you, and i wish you a happy birthday as well. next applicant is aiyana var gas. >> she withdrew her application as well as matthew gabe. >> sam pandey? >> his testimony is pretty fresh with us, he presented testimony last night. and is mr. joiner here? >> he won't be attending. >> okay. mr. koppel?

>> good morning, supervisors, it's a pleasure for me to submit my application to serve my fellow veterans and i want to begin with a story of my past, present and future in what i advocate and bring to this position. at the age of 4, my father died, i was in an orphanage, my mother found job training and we were reunited. k-7 were spent in the ferman gardens housing projects of

detroit, michigan. i wasn't supposed to graduate from high school, i had below a c average but i was socially passed. [inaudible] if a disability and [inaudible] cause in joining the army, i could have claimed a stuttering problem and walked away easily but i felt i wanted to serve my country. for me, it was the most transformational experience in my life. the one thing i received 8 weeks of in-patient treatment at walter reid army medical center for stuttering. i had never been with a group

of stutterers before, we used to joke about, we're going to get out of the army and become disjock kis. i didn't know that i would later earn my living lecturing to university students around the world, so for that and many other things that i gained during my military services, i'm deeply grateful. in my career, i overcame one of my disabilities, present ones, learning disabilities, after having been rejected to go to the school of my choice, michigan state university, i got that letter that says you have not yet demonstrated the ability to succeed in our program. i came back and earned a phd from that university.

this carried me into other areas within my educational career of 27 years, i became very much involved in community service, followed the teachers of robert green leaf in servant leadership, most notably i led students for 8 years in four different countries to perform 3200 hours of service, the ark here in san francisco is one of the areas where i served, i also worked with hay dash berry food program and i championed some of the development of homeless and then people with developmentally disadvantaged, so this was a part of my service . midway through my caoe, i read

this book, 25 million copies sold, what i consider professionally to be the leading learning organize ideation in the world for seminars and contents and books such this. so, if you would pass out -- i have two additional pieces of information for you to review and it's two new programs that accent the commitment of the franklin ko*f vie leadership organization directly to veterans and if i may read you just one brief passage from the 7 [inaudible] for soldiers, as the war in global terrorism continue, soldiers are stressed and some are demonstrating increasing propensities to

engage in high risk behavior. the u.s. army's comprehensives soldiers fitness campaign was initiated to rebalance health promotion, risk reduction, suicide prevention and services, 7 habits for highly effective soldiers provides a holistic multidisciplinary approach to improve the life skills of veterans. i'm a professional educator, i've been a community servant, i've been a veteran in various programs, i have taught programs to a clinic and this is who i am and i would like you to help me advocate for

this quality of material for our veterans, and being appointed to this rich commission would be a step in that direction. and i want to thank you for allowing me to be here, there are many good candidates here and i appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak to you and i'll address any questions you might have. >> thank you, mr. koppel, i think we're -- no questions right now, but i do appreciate your willingness to serve on the commission. >> thank you very much. >> supervisor cohen has a question. >> thank you, mr. koppel, or dr. koppel, thank you for your interest and your service. i just wanted to touch base.with you a little bit about your application about the veterans affairs commission, have you attended a commission meeting? >> yes, i have. >> and have you had an opportunity to read the last

annual report of the commission? >> no, i haven't. >> do you think that an appointment to this commission would be a good addition to your resume? >> it wouldn't hurt it, certainly. >> [laughter]. >> but my reason for being here is to give back because of the debts that i feel the medical center services, etc., that i have received. one other thing, one of the new commissioners was going to write -- because we had some dealing of bringing some 7 habit programs here, but he got called away on orders and he's a reserve pensioner i didn't give material to him in time to speak of a letter of our brief yet meaningful interaction. >> so, do you have any specific

needs or concerns that might be directly addressed or resolved by actions taken up by the commission? >> well, i'm not sure i understand the question. i mean, i would advocate this because, number one, i'm a facilitator with the organization, so -- >> which organization. >> franklin covee. >> so, let me try to narrow down my commission, on the commission, you have an opportunity to make policy suggestions to the mayor's office, to the board of supervisors on the direction that we as a city should be going in to work with our veterans. >> yes. >> and i wanted to hear a little bit more of your thoughts around what you would like to see, how you as a commissioner would be doing this. i'm hearing that you are a trainer with the franklin covee method of 7 habits of highly

effective military leaders, so how do you see yourself being able to blend this training with the commission? >> first of all, i stake so much on the credibility of the first-class globally acclaimed program that this material represents and i think our veterans deserve first-class benefits and first-class treatment, particularly because as i said in the one brief paragraph, they give so much and they need something to rebalance their life to return. >> so i understand, the point at issue is not whether or not the training, the materials are valid or needed or not needed. let's just assume that it's a

phenomenal program, i'm unfamiliar with it personally, but it's a phenomenal training program and you are successful in bringing it to the commission and to the veterans. i just want to see a little bit further down the line your vision. are we talking about seminars, are we talking about training, are we talking about training that inspire veterans to become entrepreneurs, i'm trying to understand more about you about what you would like to accomplish as a commissioner. >> yes, the outcomes of the program are very clear. there are vocational as well as advocation, they're not only targeted towards the soldier but also to the soldier's family, so let's give that comprehension, give that total s*frs to those who are in need because of the circumstances that are in their deployment.

i have understood from a person at the town hall meeting that this is used as pre and post deployment material that they reserve you to undergo, so i would like to learn more about that. i would like to see where that takes us. i only want what's best for our veterans. >> let me ask you a question. >> sure. >> just by way of background so you know who i am i'm a daughter of a vietnam vet, a lot of the discussions that we take around the community i take seriously and we have young veteran that is are coming back from the battles that we're facing overseas. maybe you can talk to me about how your experience can connect with some of the younger men and women that are coming into battle, keeping in mind that some of these men and women that are fighting are also

dealing with personal identity issues such as their sexual orientation or identity in their gender assignment. these are already complex internal dilemmas that an individual will face. now, having gone to war and coming back from service, in my mind, only further complicates that internal battle/struggle or in my cases if someone is triumphant and they're able to identify and express theses the way they see fit, oftentimes that doesn't with what the military standard is. maybe you can talk to me about how you can help bridge this gap. >> i think this would be one ingredient in the mental health approach that is holistic and relates to the total being and

with mental health specialists, i could see coordination of this. i could see developing -- there are now school systems that have a separate program where for a three year period, a culture is established in a k-7 program and the students begin thinking about the 7 habits. let's find a win, win. we often struggle with -- like employment, i want a job and i can't find one, they don't want me. well, what does the employer need? see, this is so universal as a piece, as one part of the difficult puzzle. now, it's true, i have not seen combat, i wanted to go overseas during my enlistment, during my three year enlistment, i stayed in the states, i cooked for a

three star general. >> what branch did you serve? >> i was in the army. >> in xa capacity? >> i was a 941mos cook and i cooked for a three star general, that was for a brief period of time but in his personal residence, i had good qualifications, but you know, i peeled my potatoes and i lifted those 50 gallon pots of potatoes and put them on the stove every day. >> i'm sorry wherebisinger did you serve? >> fort belleview, virginia and general wilson walker was the chief of engineers and he had his residence on the post and i served him for a while, then i went to the officers messonol. >> thank you, fantastic, thank you for answering my questions. >> thank you, mr. koppel, i appreciate your presence and your willingness to serve. we don't have any other applicants, so we can open this item up for public comment.

any member of the public who would like to come. >> [inaudible]. (indiscernible). listening, speech, action, you say pathway and thinking, so 7, body of talent. we *f we have put on to exact objective, thinking pattern and seldom behavior of performance. i mean, my 7 day -- my body way of counting. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> hello, supervisors of the rules committee, i'm steven know s*el, i want to start by thanking you for the three

appointments, wonderful appointments that you made for us last month, all three of those commissioners are already well established and part panting, doing good for the exhibitioner all three of them showed up for a reception last monday at the mayor's conference room with the mayor there and project hope director bevin duffy hosting a program that had to do with finding apartments and homes for homeless veterans and they're already involver in that, so thank you for those appointments. i'm here today to speak for someone and advocate for sam pandey would spoke before you last month, he's away up in davis, he's unable to get here today. he's involved with a program under the coral fellowship he's working with right now and that's alread