ing. 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 already a tremendous

qualification. i don't know if many of you know how hard it is to become a coral fellow, what you have to go through. there are graduate school transcripts that are necessary, there are writing of essays and letters of recommendation. my point is that he has passed all these with flying colors, he didn't raise a lot of that when he spoke for himself, however, the qualifications are tremendous and the alumni of the coral fellowship goes back to senator fine stein and other people who have been through that program, so he's already working on that and another reason that bewant him on the commission is that he's already serving this commission, he's been on our agenda for the past two month and is he's already present today the commission as a guest on a couple of different subject and is we expect him to present again on a program that wraps up for the

coral fellowship involving a recap of all of the programs that are available. >> thank you very much. thank you for serving as well. any other member of the public would would like to comment, please come forward, and seeing none, we'll close public comment. >> you've already spoken. thank you. public comment is now closed on this item, there will be future items to comment on. kloeg, we have this live before us, just based on mr. pandey's presentation in the past and we also had mr. caldera who's here today and mr. koppel, thank you for being here as well, again, we have people who have experience with the commission, people who definitely have great understanding and knowledge of issues affecting veterans, i'm open to the various people supporting mr. cal deersinger ra i would like to be able to do i also thought mr. pandey had a strong presentation and his experience is really great as well, he has

an active relationship with the commission, so i want to hear your thoughts. supervisor tang? >> thank you to the applicants who came out again in such a short period of time. i know we've also struggled with our decision last time given the number of seats we had and were constrained to. i know that at our last meeting as well that all of us expressed a lot of interest in mr. pandey, there were not enough seats, so i really liked his presentation last time, he brings a perspective which he is someone who is freshly has this experience and i think brings a younger voice to the commission, so i would abing hull like to see him appointed to this. >> thank you, so i would like to make a motion to support mr. pandey for the appointment to seat number 3. >> okay. seconded by supervisor tang and colleague, we can take that

without objection. and thank you, everyone else, for coming here today as well. next item, please. >> item number 5 is a hearing to consider appointing two members, term ending february 23, 2017 to the citizen's committee on community development, there are two seat and is 4 applicants. >> two seats and 4 applicants and the first one is -- the first person is not here, mr. loftman who's interested, we'll go on to mr. stafford, if you could please come forward. thank you. >> hello, i apologize in advance if my comments are off the mark. this is my first experience with this type of hearing. i'm both excited and nervous. a quick background about myself, my name is william staff ford, i work at wells fargo advisors of san francisco, i help individuals, corporations create action nabl

and comprehensive financial plans in order for them to achieve their financial objectives. i have lived in san francisco since 2007 and i currently reside just across the plaza at larkin and mcallister, i studied financial economics for college, my favorite organization to volunteer at are friends to have urban forest [inaudible] san francisco is an incredible phase of its development, the tremendous growth our city's experiencing can be seen by the multitudes of crane, new businesses and tremendous tax revenue being collected. of course the growth that is happening is not distributed equally. there is a large contingent that needs to support both public and private entities,, a strong citizens community on community development is essential to the well being of our city in order to help identify and address the needs of san francisco's most vulnerable residents. i believe imd make a tremendous

addition as my skills are aligned with the objectives of the committee in san francisco as a whole. i do not have an extensive background dealing with public policy and urban development my spear tease is in strategic planning, qualitive anl analysis and planning. my responsibility is to man an incredible amount of time researching first rewards scenarios and managing expectations using all floppers of communication. my greatest strength as it pertain tos this open seat on the cc cd is my uncompromising will to some day raise a family in san francisco, in order for that dream to become a reality, we have to create a great societal foundation. there will always be people who have problems finding ends

meet, the tangible difference we can make with a committee working in sync with family officials is to go from people living on the fringe to secure a long time residence. my compassion coupled with my experience makes me a great addition to the cc cd. i very much appreciate the time you have taken to consider my application for the citizens committee on community development. >> thank you very much and thank you for your interest. this is a very obscure committee but it's also one that you're applying for based because you have a real interest and advancing community development efforts, your role at wells fargo seems to be doing that as well, what are some of the things you want to see accomplished with your tenure on the committee? >> i think the most important part of the committee is

identifying where help is most needed and where help can make the most difference. i know reading over the minutes and going to a couple of the meetings, there's so much -- so many proposals for help that it's hard to address each one individually so i think -- i think the biggest difference we can make is if we really focus on transitional housing. i know that an obvious one, if we spend more time on that, it would make a difference. just getting more information out there, i think lots of -- everybody needs help, i just don't think they're asking in the right place, so i think more information in general from the committee and maybe communication between the community and the city officials. >> that's great. so, one of the things when i first came on the board of supervise source at that time, we were facing a major deficit and there was a lot of money

that was being cut from community programs and there was a move to reduce or cutback on community development efforts in san francisco and looking at -- focusing community development efforts just on commercial corridors and now we're looking at it in terms of business, and some work my office had done with some of the former member of this committee was to try and push back and broaden the idea of making sure we could have a broad focus about what community development looks like, how we look at asset ins the city, how we build leadership between communities where leadership isn't taking place or new leaders do emerge, and that experiment has been going on in district 11 in my district, we have two major neighborhoods that have developed housing and workforce development, also business work, business development as well, and creating new networks

of people would work with each other and something that -- that's why i say it's a relatively obscure committee because a lot of people don't know the work that it's been doing, i want to make sure if you're involved that you can help to make sure that the efforts that are happening in district 11 and other places, that they're happening in san francisco that they're growing the community development is growing, we're seeing cuts from the federal government where community development is not being invested in like it was previously and these are effort that is are happening at the local level that are carrying the idea of that work. i wanted to throw that in there as you're here before you. >> thank you. >> any reactions though? >> on what you just said? well i live in district 6, it's just -- there's so much going on. there is less funding and i think what you're saying is --

and what i also believer, you can make a tangible difference having organizations like this committee just doing not basic outreach but organizing and out reaching that doesn't maybe require a lot of funding because there's less but there just needs to be better communication i think in general and i think a committee for community development would really help that. i mean, you have people who are living on the streets in front of brand new bakeries and restaurants and where i live, and it's really disappointing that as san francisco with a lot of well to do and hardworking individuals that we can't make reach out and target who needs the help and how we can get them information and maybe push them along, but give them a stance or just an opportunity to help themselves

and then that one by one domino effect would better serve the community in san francisco as a whole. i think that's what you were saying and i definitely reflect that idea. >> great, thank you. >> thank you. >> so, we'll go to our next candidates, patrina hall. ms. hall? >> good afternoon, chair avalos, vice chair tang and supervisor cohen. i'm a little nervous. i would like to say that i'm a san francisco native and i have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, i have a pine nor in urban studies and planning and also i live in district 6. i'm also a member of the low-income community, low-income and disabled

community, and i've worked on -- served on several board of director, social service, non-profit organizations, focusing on and addressing is use and concerns that affect low-income and homeless populations. my expertise is in grant and program administration, particularly oversight and disbursement of funding, funding appropriated for programs and services around the mckinney vental act such as homelessness, job creation, transitional housing. i don't see none of that really affecting my community. i don't see any of it really helping us, you know. i see there is a few non-profit organizations who are building transitional housing, there's a couple of shelter programs. there's families and children sleeping on the streets. i've come to know a lot of

these people, i've interviewed them. i've started a non-profit organization to address some of the needs and concerns that are affecting the low-income and homeless population. what i would like to see is how the funding that the federal government -- the funding tha the federal government is appropriate tog the state and local government, how is it being disbursed among the people in my population n the community i live in, 46% of the homeless population are african american males. they're sleeping on the streets, they're in doorways, the shelters are full, there's no shelters. my vision is to see, you know, to work on opportunities and transitional housing, shelter, job training, child care and also to help the disadvantaged and non-profit social service organizations, to help them so

they can start helping the homeless and low-income as well because there's been a lot of discrimination and grant appropriations to the non-profits to disadvantaged non-profits, so that is my vision and i just hope, you know, i hope that i could serve on this committee because i see there ao assist lot of business interest on this committee and it's a citizen, so there should be some citizen involvement. i am a community representative of district 6 and i know the issues, i'm involved with community housing partnership, tndc, i know all the local non-profits, you know, i ao*e been working with them and they feel the same thing, you know, they feel that it should be more done and that the funding isn't reaching the people it should be reaching, it's not reaching them. i would also like to say i am a

graduate student, i will be graduating next spring, from there, i will be entering into the jd program and possibly completing a phd afterwards. >> that's great. >> so, you mentioned interest in how mckinney vento federal funds are allocate and had the committee also -- the community block program as well as and reviews those and forwards them on to the mayor's office of community development to decide. in your experience, have you seen that -- the grants change from year to year in a significant way and why and why not? >> yes, i've seen it change where there's been less disbursement to the non-profits, there's been certain none profits who have been denied. they have to go out and raise funding, you know, privately to get