>> good morning today is september 24th, i am john avalos, i have with me supervisor >> supervisor cohen:

malia cohen supervisor katy tang. >> please turn off an electronic devices. any documents can be submitted to the clerk. >> supervisor avalos: item number one. >> consider the mayor's appointment to the children youth and families oversight advisory committee. > please come forward and welcome. thank you for your interest in the oversight committee, we want to talk about your interest in your experience in working with children from families. >> i'm linda martin jordan,

currently employed by (unintelligible) been in the district since 2005, began in the elementary school working at diablo and malcom x. i have been at (unintelligible) high school since 2007. decreasing the truancy rate. it was extremely high. since 2009 i have been appointed to special project working with african-american families and in that capacity i have been able to develop ways for families to be involved and participating in voicing their opinions about what is going on in the school district and in particular in mission.

i work with various community based organizations to provide services to their students and families. i am a choice that needs to be made for seat number 6, i just want to be clear about it. (laughter). one thing that is in the forefront of my mind is how to develop a means to reach out into the community to find out their needs that we can address and retrieving the data. once would retrieve the data -- whatever it looks like -- we need to have courageous conversations about what really needs to happen with the data that is what a kind of bring to the table. . >> supervisor avalos: what is it data tell you in terms of how does the city need to focus on retention and -- students of color?

>> have been some -- how can i say this -- there has been a lot of headway addressing two issues of various ethnic groups in the city and outward migration -- and address that issue with the mayor's staff (unintelligible) -- hired by superintendent carranza -- and those committees that are working that happen and i have been a part of those committees and i will continue to because it is needed but i work with all students but my focus is african-americans now. >> supervisor avalos: how do you see the city advancing the efforts of the city? and also support your work and

school district as well? >> i work across all school platforms and desires, quality living, quality jobs, quality training, working with the other 10 members of the committee we can sit down and look strategically at what has occurred, what has worked and come up with a plan for how we can address these to make them better. >> supervisor avalos: are you a parent of a child in the city? or have you been the parent of a child in the city? >> i am a grandmother. i know i look younger. (laughter) (unintelligible)--

i was a foster mom but they call me a mom because i claim all the kids at admission. >> supervisor avalos: thank you for your service and for wanting to be in the committee. >> i have some people that have come in to speak. >> will open it up for public comment, no need for speaker cards. >> any additional questions? >> it's good to see you. many people whom i respect have called me a written me a letter with high recommendations for your candidacy. i want to acknowledge your leadership around my brother's keeper. it had a whole panel and the commitment of president obama is unprecedented and in a

direction that we need to be moving in and we are delighted to implemented here in san francisco at the local level, looking critically at education and the mental health aspect to ensure that we are creating and supporting these in mensa they will be successful so i appreciate your advocacy and being involved in that level and again like i said i don't know you personally but the recommendations speak for themselves and i will be happy to support you today. >> to make a comment, this past saturday our committee came together and vision was to have a black family day from cradle to career. we had 800 families present, students were accepted on-site, they received scholarship money and had workshops on everything from

(unintelligible) -- and also we had giveaways and the mayor came, families were so pleased, they were so excited to be in the space with all of this going on. >> i heard the catering was interesting as well. one of my favorites. also prior to this committee meeting -- speaking about the event last saturday, and that it was successful (the mayor speaking) -- (unintelligible) and make sure that this is come to fruition. >> any questions? >> supervisor avalos: this is a hearing.

the right choice has already been made by the mayor. >> >> >> the morning. >> my name is (unintelligible) i am the program manager of (unintelligible) in san francisco speaking in support miss jordan. (unintelligible) -- linda jordan's appointment to this would be very needed.

her effect in the community that answer is far-reaching and she is active and visible. i support her appointment. if you have any other questions of me i will be here for another minute and ten. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good morning my news craig peters, i am with a san francisco coalition of (unintelligible). in the context of the work of our organization, we are charged with how schools transform (unintelligible), related to the work that i believe this committee set up to oversee. it is with excitement that i

support her nomination, not just because miss jordan comes with experience about the workings in the city, presenting many families that are invisible and not heard enoughand our work with miss jordan has been a bridge, is our community experiences gaps of opportunity. miss jordan's skill to build bridges and allow work to happen in support of those reached, has been a tremendous addition to the committee so i support the nomination tremendously. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much.

if they are no other commenters -- we can close this. and i want to thank miss jordan for coming in today. do i have a motion to file this meeting? so moved and approved without objection. next item. >> considering one term for the citizens advisory board, one seat and one applicant. >> supervisor avalos: just so we know beforehand the supervisor for the district is also (unintelligible) for applicants to come in, and have their decision based in applicants can begin. i have a motion to continue on

her request. >> have three minutes or two according for this? >> supervisor avalos: three is fine for me. >> thank you to the chairman and the members of the committee for hearing me today. in terms of my applicable experience i have been responsible for developing a pedestrian friendly vision. that is something i feel very strongly about. this opportunity i think is really exciting because it is in affect creating a brand-new neighborhood for the city of san francisco that has so many complex elements and it.

i have been through the comprehensive plan for the island. it is extensive and one of my qualifications is that i understand the vision and where it is headed. i applaud that and i know how much time it takes to put it together and it is been many years in the making. there is a critical junction here when planning is turning into the physical development of the island, beginning in the next couple of months when demolition starts taking place. i have been in that place before, with thousands of acres turning into a thriving community, overseeing the construction of transportation networks, trail and parks facilities, public facilities, sites for homes that were at

various levels of affordability. >> supervisor avalos: where was this? >> a community called dupont landing in washington, one of the hallmarks of community planning, designed by (unintelligible) in berkley. looking at the comprehensive plan. i'm excited at the opportunities -- it can be seen as a brand-new community, looking at the use of the wetlands as part of the water treatment plant there. for the last five years i have been involved in the company that creates a new stores

wetlands across the united states so i value that deeply. this is a grander use i would say of those wetlands; i'm particularly eager to see how that plays out. the other parallel is that in the course of the (unintelligible) project there was a huge environmental issue there, covering over 600 acres. it was an old black powder plant, much like hercules was here. when that use and it there was a substantial arsenic and lead contamination that we have to clean up. i don't think that things are quite severe in treasure island is that. >> radioactive waste. >> there is that. i'm enthused by using my

experiences to create (unintelligible) and restore wetland and bring them to treasure island. one of the most satisfying things in the past project has seen a transform (unintelligible) talking to new residents and employees who come they are to see the enthusiasm on their faces that we achieved what we set out to achieve in a like to do the same thing at treasure island. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you for your interest in your appearance today. i'm curious if you have gone to the advisory committee meetings and what you have seen. and what you have perceived as some of the issues that face -- treasure island.

>> i have attended one of the citizen's advisory board meetings in june. at that meeting there was no discussion about the transition plan but i am aware that they are existing residents on the island. there is a transition plan in order to carry it forward so they are not displaced from the island as it takes these others transformative steps. i know that there has been considered and i was able to speak briefly with one of the residents on the board and asked her specifically how the concision plan appeared to her and what i heard was a positive response, that it did accommodate the residents of the island and plans and expects good things there.

that is extent of my experience with that. >> supervisor avalos: thank you and will open up for comment; i will ask for a motion to continue so that we can review other applications as well but your name will still be in the mix. >> very well. >> supervisor avalos: public comment is now open. >> hi, i'm becky (unintelligible), for seven or eight years. i have been chatting with him today, i think he would be a positive addition to the committee and we have lost a lot of good people so we need new people. >> supervisor avalos: did you have a quorum?

>> we had a quorum but we have lost people. (unintelligible). things are starting to happen and we are meeting monthly. some people have left and we need to bring in new people. >> supervisor avalos: as chairman we need to make sure that (unintelligible) finalizing our position. we will close public comments. and we will continue this item -- hopefully within a month we can get this settled. thank you for being here. approved without objection. >> item number three is a hearing to consider to appoint one member for determining february first, 2017.

>> how are you all doing today. -- last month i worked on the resolution to have the planning department and (unintelligible) and part of it a strategic plan for district 6 and district 10 for how to get more parkland in those areas. is something that is needed and it is very important and we need to make sure that it is done properly. the if it is the last thing i did i'm happy

to go out on that. i want to make sure that our parks in the district that i have represented in the past and have taking care of and in other districts is something really important to me making sure that other districts that don't have parks like i have had in my life are represented in park land. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. >> supervisor tang: i think mister (unintelligible) -- even though he lives in another district but he has done a lot of work bridging the different communities in the neighborhood and eating with issues that arise in the community, large events that are taking place (unintelligible) so we had (unintelligible) interested in serving in this capacity

for the two district 4 seats. currently is on (unintelligible) and love to see him continue as well in another seat. >> supervisor avalos: that was my question actually. supervisor cohen? go right ahead. >> supervisor cohen: it is good to see you again. i would like to (unintelligible) that's truly about open spaces and parks for the entire city of san francisco. i worked on the project dealing with the committee that he is sitting on -- he was very helpful and i would be very happy to support you today. >> supervisor avalos:

i will chime in as well chime in as well -- the district has a need for more open space. >> excuse me for interrupting -- district 6 - (unintelligible) i talked to the commissioners about it, trying to get some go back money get it fundded as well. >> supervisor avalos: great, thank you. we'll open it up for public comment. say none we will close public comment. thank you for your interest in for serving already on prosec (sounds like).

>> i like to make a motion to appoint nicholas balomey (sounds like) to seat 5. >> approved without objection. >> item number four is to hear and consider appointing three members, term ending march 28, 207, to the pedestrian safety advisory committee, there are three seats and three applicants. >> supervisor avalos: come forward. welcome again. >> my name is rebecca (unintelligible), everybody calls me becky.

i have been on the pedestrian safety advisory committee for two years and served as the bylaws chair, and i served as the chair of the resolutions committee, which we did a resolution on the bicycle -- >> supervisor avalos: (off mic) >> in support of that as far as pedestrians go and i am currently the cochair of the committee. (unintelligible) for seniors and people with disabilities -- we have to shorten that -- and have been on that quite a while and i am also disabled and i was raised by a single mother who was also disabled.

i lived in san francisco since i was five years old. i lived in presidio. (unintelligible) my community involvement started in high school, and the first project was (unintelligible), goes back quite a ways. i am on the citizens advisory committee for treasure island. (off mic) i've learned a lot since i have been here, and i hope i continue to see (unintelligible). >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much and for all the different ways that you have served the city of san francisco. i would like to have a recommendation and the resolution (unintelligible) -- it was unexpectedly expected if

i could say that. it was helpful, and it was a real opening to consider what many people don't see as real measure to improve pedestrian safety and the recommendations and resolution are ones that i would like to come board with amendments, there was more clarity and specificity (unintelligible). >> that is what we thought we would put those in. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. i don't have any question so we we'll go on to the next applicant.

>> morgan fitzsimmons was not able to come unexpectedly, the next applicant is sonia (unintelligible). >> (unintelligible), -- and also the city's coalition -- and a person that lives in district 6, we want to experience the whole city at the pedestrian and we have a lot of work to do for pedestrian safety. i'm looking at that of the eyes of an urban planner which is my trade. a lot has been done but the system still needs to be working at it. i'm available for questions of anybody has any. >> supervisor avalos:

how do you see that the pedestrian safety advisory committee and vizion zero, what are your contributions to both? >> when i worked i worked for (unintelligible), development corporation and we developed affordable housing in i worked with vision zero to give information about pedestrian safety, (unintelligible), all that together helped the work that i do in my 9-to-5 job. vision zero is an excellent program if you will, zero deaths by 2024 would be perfect, always something to strive for. >> supervisor avalos: there is some crossover between the two. >> definitely.

one of my charges was pedestrian safety i'm bringing that to the residents of our buildings. >> supervisor avalos: looking at the data, district 6 (unintelligible) has definitely (unintelligible). >> thank you. >> supervisor avalos: no other questions here. mr. will not be here today. so now we will open it up for public comment. i have three cards. john mobile. please come forward. you will be speaking and half of each of the applicants, the appointees. >> thank you supervisors for having this hearing, for the

renewal of these three individuals, these outstanding members of the pedestrian safety advisory committee and served with. i serve on seat number 4, parallel to the seat that becky hogue (sounds like) is applying for, seat 3, representing disability organizations. (unintelligible) i served in the -- supervisors cohen and tang were present (unintelligible) -- she is engaged with the activity she held on pezac (sounds like) -- two resoltions that she chaired and examined were developed by morgan fitzgivings

(sounds like). a yeld and stop sign for bicylcists and daylight to encourage for the use in vision zero campaign. she chaired our committee for almost four years, and has been effective, especially in district 6 where she lives and works, and i encourage you to approve all three. rebecca hgue and morgan fitzsimmons (sounds like). >> supervisor avalos: i also got communication from john (unintelligible) as well expressing support.

we have other people want to speak as well. (unintelligible). >> hello my name is edward (unintelligible), speaking and half of becky, she has been leadership in the committee with cognitive and behavioral issues. i would like to support her. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much. >> hello my name is (unintelligible) and i'm here and half of supervisor (unintelligible) office and myself, in support of rebecca hogue for seat 3. >> supervisor avalos: thank you and have another person wants to come forward. two members.

>> my name is (unintelligible) and a member of pezac representing district 4. mister fitzgibbon has been a very good mentor and a fantastic activist bringing together communities (unintelligible), a big part of the pedestrian safety conversation. i strongly recommend everyone for reappointment. thank you so much. >> supervisor avalos: looks like she concurs as well. see no other members coming forward we will close public comments. >> supervisor tang: i will like to make a motion to point rebecca hogue to seat 3,

morris fitzgibbons to seat 5 and (unintelligible) to seat 9. >> next item please. >> number five is hearing to consider appointing the members terms ending september 3, 2018, to the assessment appeals board. >> good morning supervisors. my name is joseph tang (sounds like), i've been on the assessment appeals board no. 2, from 2010 to 2012, and no. 1

for the last three years and previously i worked with a san francisco public utilities commission as a real estate properties officer. i am also certified general appraiser since 1985 i believe, so it's been a while. so in that capacity i do appraisal work and also i was bank supervisor reviewing other people's appraisals. at sfpc i was a member of local 21 and i was adelegate for them for 4 years and i volunteer at the ymca and do various other chinatown related volunteer opportunities. >> thank you very much and

thank you to the seven applicants that are here for board no. 1 and no. 2. we are in interesting economic times and we know that most of you are reappointments. if you could shed light on how it is that you (unintelligible) fairness is important but what are some of the things that you look for. this will be a question for all the applicants that come up.. >> supervisor avalos: i'll give you my questions as well; the philosophies that drive your decision-making. >> i along with the other commission members we have worked for many years together on the commission so we are all professionals. when someone appears before the board we look at the appeals objectively

and go through their presentations and analyze and ask questions in regards to their methodology and how they arrived at their value. when we meet behind closed doors with primarily stick with the facts of the case and look at different aspects of the reports and to make sure also that there is equity involved. once we decide the value of the property we also try to meet not only the spirit of the letter of the law but also the spirit of the law sometimes because in many instances as you may know assessment property rules are very complicated and cumbersome even sometimes to myself. we see guidance of the legal

counsel on the board and try to make an equitable decision when it comes to sometimes the case does not meet the letter of the law but it does meet the spirit of the law and we try to have equity for the taxpayer. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. we'll go on to the next reappointing. the get my notes before me. mark watts. i apologize for the confusion. >> good morning i am mark watts, currently serving on board number one. this will be my third term. i really enjoy it.

i enjoy that over the past four or five years the quality of work that the assessors doing has dramatically improved in terms of their presentations. they had unified their presentation style which has helped us and are working better with the applicants in terms of reaching equitable decisions. (unintelligible) i think we have actively worked with the assessor and with applicants to try to bring them together to bridge that gap. as far as my experience, 25 years of commercial real estate appraisal, i enjoy the cases, i enjoy looking at and talking about real estate. that is what these cases are about.

i see absolutely no // with our group of 10 people, i may be interact with five or six people and i have never seen anyone having a bias toward the applicant or the assessor. we look at the facts and make a decision based the facts presented before us; we cannot go back home and do homework. this is what people present. we will continue this case and you need to come back with more information or sometimes i have to tell the assessor, look, the approach it took was not the proper approach for a real estate appraisal. >> supervisor avalos: how long have you served now?

>> i served four and a half years. >> supervisor avalos: so you have been a part of the appeals, and the large backlog. how has this affected the work of the board? >> it is made the applicants angry but we try to be efficient and listen to what the people have to say. right now the backlog is down quite a bit. >> supervisor avalos: good to hear. next up is mister spitzell (sounds like). >> good morning i am scott spitzell,

certified accountant and a certified fraud examiner for 25 years. i've been a board member for the past six years. my philosophy or approach to the board is that a decision has to be made on the facts presented by the parties in front of us. i think that typically each case comes down to two or three differences of opinion and it is important to question parties and understand the basis for why they base their opinions on those two or three fax and get an understanding of their belief in his support for that belief and from that a reasonable decision can be made based on that information. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. any questions? thank you.

i think i would do this one on its own, we'll open up deciding for public comment. any member that would like to comment? seeing none i will close public comment. >> supervisor tang: i like to make a motion of joseph tang to seat 2, mark watt to (unintelligible) and (unintelligible). >> supervisor avalos: i would like to thank everyone for their service, long hours on the assessment appeals board. and thank you for the service to our city. without objection.

(gavel). >> item number six. here to consider appointing four members, terms ending september 3, 2018, to the assessment appeals board number two. >> supervisor avalos: miss mendoza. >> my name is louise mendoza. i have been on the board 2, seeking reappointment for seat one. i have been with the assessments -- this will be my fourth term in the board -- i'm looking forward to it. i have been arrested broker for 17 (correction)

i have been a real estate broker for 17 years. i started 20 years ago. i graduated to commercial and still do a lot of property management, residential and commercial and got my insurance broker's license. went on to mortgage brokering. had the opportunity (unintelligible). i own and operate my own small business where i do mortgage brokerage. (unintelligible) i do some residential.

i thoroughly enjoy the assessment appeals board. for me it bridges and understanding between (unintelligible) and the assessor's office. (unintelligible) is like an ongoing process as you work with each case individually and then you see what is needed and recommendations are made (unintelligible). for me, with a lot of information i have gathered (unintelligible) -- i can then pass that knowledge along to the public. it is really intimidating the public when they do come before the board as to what should be provided, and how we should go about it.

it is mission to provide information for the committee (unintelligible) we are here and the city is here, not an intimate dating cr1 (correction) intimidating it is not an intimidating process. >> supervisor avalos: is there a difference between appeals boards 1 2 and 3 in terms of the types of appeals? >> (unintelligible) with board 2 it's under 50 million and board 3 does a lot of hearings

on residential. i remember the days we started -- oh my goodness, so many cases over and over, after a while you see it and you know it because for me i work basically in the streets seeing it, looking at the facts when it comes before you. (unintelligible). >> supervisor avalos: great, thank you. supervisor tang. >> supervisor tang: i will repeat the question that both supervisor avalos and i asked, how do you view the cases, what are the values that

you take with you as you approach these cases. >> well, i approach the case, or each case, as new and different. it's like a blank paper when it comes before you as you look at the facts on both sidess. and you try to determine the points before you on the cases, bearing in mind though there will be at the end one part that will not be too happy with the results. the objective is to make understand each

(unintelligible) position. at the beginning what i tried to do and see is explain to the taxpayer why do you believe that the value is x, y or z. and not feel intimidated before they start. >> supervisor avalos: mr. (unintelligible) is not available. next up is angela (unintelligible). transferring from board 3. >> good morning supervisors,

thank you for having me here. my name is angela cheung (sounds like). when i graduated in 1992, i obtained (unintelligible) license, i have been lucky to work in san francisco since then. between 1992 and 1996 i took further education real estate including appraisal, loan underwriting and processing. i obtain a broker license in 1996. in the 23 years i have been doing numerous transitions including condos, multi family commercials and now i'm lucky

to be in redevelopment an project as well. (unintelligible) i've opened up my own business, a brokerage firm and i do property management and more development projects. the reason why i can devote more time to the committee right now is because i have (unintelligible) because as a lot of people know being a salesperson or broker your work seven days. or in the management work, i can have more stable schedules to serve the committee. i've been sitting in board 3 for two years, since 2013, not

only as a hearing officer but (unintelligible) and also substitute in board 2. i have experiences (unintelligible). and also because i been so long in industry, i went through at least three cycles and also the economy cycles, and i have seen a lot of ups and downs in property values. basically my business is people business so i talk to people and a lot of times (unintelligible) cases i understand that as a commissioner or board member, we have to be neutral. in order to deliver

a fair and reasonable judgment. otherwise it is not going to be good for both bodies. (unintelligible) -- emotional, sentimental value on the property. a lot of times there are different stories that they try to tell us but sometimes it is off track as well. we're talking let's say 2010 tax appeal, and sometimes they give us 2010, or back to 1990, a lot of times honestly,

everybody is a human being, i have to bring myself back to the facts and what is being presented. said to be a commissioner or member of any board we have to be neutral. honestly, not only because of the efforts of the commissioners. (unintelligible) and the assessment appeals office, the whole team.

i enjoy working with them and serving the community as well. >> supervisor avalos: could you say why you would like to move from 3 to 2? what is your interest behind that? >> i want to do more with the full board honestly. i think my knowledge in the real estate usinbss, i can serve more under board 2, from single-family housing to multifamily investment properties. also the hearing officer is good and has very good experience as well. the other reason is because right now people are more into (unintelligible).

the hearing officer has less; i'm almost holding (unintelligible) as a full board. so i said if there is an opening in board 2 (unintelligible). and also as a team, all the commissioners, if anyone needs a substitute i am available to do that. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. seeing no other questions we'll go on to the next applicant. joyce lewis. >> good morning. my name is joyce lewis, and i am seeking reappointment to board 2 as an alternate. in

2011 i was appointed to fill a vacancy that became available midterm. in 2013 i was appointed officially to board 2 as an alternate. in terms of my qualifications i am a licensed attorney in the state of california. i've been licensed for 20 years. i wanted to make a couple of points about your question supervisor tang. philosophically i want to make two points. i believe when citizens come before the assessment appeals board, it is important that they feel that they have been heard, that they have been given the opportunity to make their case, and that they have been treated respectfully and (unintelligible) the space of

(correction)the face of the county, and i want to say that everyone has been very respectful towards members of the public. i ask probingnd careful questions; it is important for me to figure out where the dispute lies between the parties, is it the square footage? is it the condition? is it the market? i spend extra time asking probing questions because of the time the hearing is over i am hoping that the parties are surprised or shocked by the decision.

there is a segment of the population struggling to hold on to the residence here in san francisco. it is an opportunity for me to get some education about the process. they don't know what type of evidence to bring in. frankly before i got involved with the board i do not know much about the appeals process. in terms of educating residents and taxpayers about what their rights are. >> supervisor avalos:

great, thank you, i appreciate your answer. we have another applicant. we'll opened this for public comment. any member of the public would like to make comments come forward seeing none i close the public comment. >> supervisor tang: i would like to reappoint each member as well and make it motion to appoint (unintelligible). >> supervisor avalos: thank you and i appreciate the motion. and we will take that without objection. okay, thank you so much and everyone has been recommended to the full board for reappointment and thank you for your service and look forward to your work.

next item. >> item number seven is a hearing to appoint six members for terms ending april tenth, 2017, to the griffin advisory board. we have a list. >> good afternoon. thank you for having me here. i seek reappointment for seat 12, prior to working san francisco i worked for the university of vermont to reassess (unintelligible), currently i work with the garden project as a director of education and i work with youth all over the city with the idea of employment, it gives me the ability to bring them to the front and bring

them around for the clean sweep opportunity. in my spare time i am on the board of trustees (unintelligible), and i'm a tae kwon do instructor for rec and park, and i teach at the hamilton rec center and (unintelligible) a couple of times a week.

graffiti plight is very extensive over there. >> supervisor tang: sometimes it's not just abaiting graffiti (unintelligible). >> i have been working where i live educating students, it can be an art form in murals. and opening up responsibility for students who go from school to school creating projects in trying to create education. also creating (unintelligible) this upcoming year and citizens can come and have say about

graffiti around the city. and for my group personally we also work with gpw to do (unintelligible) through the clean sweep initiatives. >> supervisor avalos: great, thank you. next applicant is ms. darcy brown (sounds like). please come forward. welcome. >> good afternoon supervisors my name is darcy brown, the interim executive director of san francisco beautiful. i will be brief. san francisco beautiful as you may or may not know is dedicated to the preservation of our neighborhoods and was instrumental in the creation of the graffiti advisory board in 2005 as well as in 2012, the first international conference to address graffiti, and best practices and cleanup.

i personally have worked for or work with the county of san francisco for the last 15 years and i am a native san franciscan. i am proud to be the interim executive director of san francisco beautiful that is been around since 1947. >> supervisor avalos: thank you for your work. i don't have any questions. so happy to go on to the next person. i will be right back. -- >> good afternoon supervisors (unintelligible), the vice president of public policy

for the san francisco chamber of commerce, asking for my second term in the graffiti advisory board. in my capacity of the chamber, i feel like it's a very appropriate selection to be serving in this particular seat acting as a bridge between our business members and the city in trying to help abate the pervasive, not ending issues that we have with graffiti, helping to get the word out about the resources and be an intervention point to connect folks with resources. i am the former executive director of san francisco beautiful, i was there for 11 years and in that capacity we worked a lot and graffiti abatement work through our grant program to augment are

virtually nonexistent resources. to help neighborhood groups and individuals combat graffiti. i have enjoyed my first year there and i'm hoping to be appointment. >> supervisor tang: thank you very much, yes, it is important to have the perspective of the various communities. and try to figure out what to do other than holding buckets of paint on site. living on to mr. daniel kling (sounds like). >> thank you for having me. i'm applying for seat 15, a business seat. i'm a property owner in the city of san francisco.

i work in the citywide (unintelligible) for ecology, recycling compost more. i own a home in the upper (unintelligible), with two young children about to enter in the san francisco unified school district. we have a large stake in the community. working on the graffiti advisory board is something i can do, i feel my contributions to the graffiti advisory board have been useful. i've been the situations that are (unintelligible) from mailboxes to garbage containers, things of that nature. one of the other things that i've been able to contribute to is working on (unintelligible)

on her anti-graffiti legislation as well. i like to be approved for a second term and i hope that you will consider my application. thank you very much. >> supervisor avalos: thank you for your service. next up is rebecca delgado robin, welcome. >> good afternoon members of the rules committee, supervisor avalos, supervisor tang, supervisor cohen. i'm here asking for your support in my reappointment to the graffiti advisory board, seat number 16, representing (unintelligible) operating in san francisco. i have been with the graffiti advisory board for the last seven and a half years.

i really, really enjoy and love and take my responsibilities at the visor he board very, very seriously. the graffiti advisory board -- mod whole lot of people pay attention to it because san francisco is about art and new culture and graffiti is a form of art, but we are concerned when that art becomes and listen and so there is a difference between graffiti art and then to listen and we have an elderly home whose home has been terrorized, they are a bunch of gangs (unintelligible) disrespect. they cost the property owner a lot of money; utilize a board has three different committees,

in education committee, abatement and enforcement. we are tasked with it challenge issue in the city. the three different committees have to put our hands together and figure out how to control the problem and i have the best interest of the city. i have been living in san francisco for 30 some years, a single mother and educated in here from kindergarten through college. i have also worked in san francisco the whole time and lived in san francisco the whole time, taking public transportation and i am now a homeowner in the marina district. there's not one cure in terms of eradicating graffiti in the city and again that is why we have accommodation of different people and different approaches.

there is not one cure. i have done a lot. the graffiti advisory board is not a plum, we do not get invited to the giant's game. we are asked to plant trees and pull out weeds. clean streets in san francisco and abate graffiti in places where some of you have never been; i have been under the freeway painting graffiti with feces at your feet. it is important to all of us

particularly to youth because it helps them grow and care. when they are out they learn about themselves and their city, the learn about social issues and the environment picnic so what we do in the graffiti advisory committee, we are teaching people to be responsible and we want to create a safe, healthy city because we love our city and this is my home. admitted my home and i am working hard and i am passionate about what i'm doing at the graffiti advisory board because i want others to call san francisco their home as well. >> supervisor avalos: thank you for your service and your thorough response as well.

>> thank you very much, i love what i do. >> supervisor avalos: last person is jamie lord (sounds like), i don't know she is coming. there's a question about her eligibility as well. >> we were not able to contact ms. lord. >> supervisor avalos: i have four cards. come in the order that you are called. >> good afternoon supervisors. this is my first time being at the civic center for endorsing rebecca doug otto (correction) rebecca delgado for seat 16. she has been my mentor.

she has inspired me to get into community work. her work since 2007 with the board has proved more than what i can say right now but i know rebecca as a person who deserve passionate and an educator who is able to inspire people like myself to go out beyond our comfort zone and get back to the community as much as we can, and have a positive impact in our community as someone who has the privilege to go to a lot of different schools. i'm here to endorse rebecca delgado for seat 16 for the next term.

thanks so much for listening. >> good afternoon supervisors my name is (unintelligible) for the national federation of filipino americans, i'm here to support rebecca delgado. i've known rebecca for quite some time; not everybody knows that (unintelligible)-- one of her strengths is to mentor kids, and turn those pent-up emotions of the kids into something beautiful because of her position in the arts community. it is very commendable. i urge you to approve her recommendation.

thank you very much. >> the next speaker please. >> my name is (unintelligible) speaking in support of rebecca delgado. i have known rebecca for about five years now. she is one who cares with her whole heart. when an issue comes up to her attention to does not hesitate to take action. she knows how to take action and make things happen. in an efficient way. she knows how to value the truth. i experienced her (unintelligible) and ability to get support. (unintelligible) and was

rescued by (unintelligible) in 2009. rebecca, i was amazed at how much (unintelligible) until we came home, she did not even know us. that shows how she cares about people. i can assure you that you one someone like rebecca who brings passion and love for community. thank you. >> supervisor avalos: thank you very much. mr. ada (sounds like). >> good afternoon supervisors. i currently serve on the board of appeals is cochair and i have known rebecca for close to 20 years. as you can tell by her statement today

she is passionate, she is driven, she is community, she is a wonderful person to work for and with, i wholeheartedly and supporting her for reappointing her. >> supervisor avalos: thank you. one more speaker coming forward. >> good afternoon, i'm here to speak him half of rebecca delgado. i have been working with rebecca for a couple of years through the (unintelligible) school community, i'm the ptg president of the school. (unintelligible) and the needs of the children regarding church use and also enhancing the school and (unintelligible) of the kids, and we reached out to rebecca.

to the academy of arts we were able to facilitate open the church for (unintelligible), monumental task, been at it for 20 years. rebecca worked with the administration and the staff and the children to put together event in that space. (unintelligible) over a period of three months, with the students of the academy of art, and changed the place. she is a woman of integrity and passion and will go head over heels to make it happen. >> supervisor avalos:

first off thanks everyone for your service so far. it is not a plum job but clearly there's a lot of passion that people have for doing this work. it is well regarded, thank you. >> supervisor tang: thank you so much, what a great group of people serving on the board. i know it is not glamorous at all. today will move forward with all of the applicants who were present today -- i know there was one outstanding question for seat 17, at this demo like to point (unintelligible) (appointments as proposed). >> supervisor avalos: aye from supervisor cohen, we will take that without objection. congratulations.

any other items before us? >> that concludes the agenda. >> supervisor avalos: we are adjourned. (gavel)..

>> my name is jaeven alexander an attorney for the san francisco city attorney's office i inspires the tax team give tax advise to the treasurer and drafting tax legislation the thing i remember any mother telling me as a child but need to be prepared to take care of you've i know you wanted to burger to do something i enjoyed i did not expect anyone to gym give me anything they didn't give her anything i saw her fighting for the things she wanted for home share my name is jason man flovrlz

working alien agency an admin assistants at the city attorney's office i felt in the tasks i've been given on the days i didn't show up and held my own for me, i think it is being more active and being more involved in a person to person interaction my grievous bodily harm jobs includes being a physician or nurse or pharmacy or firefighter and working with animal or the public on a personal level for improvements my sister is the biggest influence in any life because she to tell you the truth me to go forward what makes you happy rather than the most money. >> i graduated from law school in 1972 at this point when was was beginning to be an influx of

women in the professional and tries case for diligent operated programs government budgets and a life fiscal legislation came to the san francisco city attorney's office and been here for about 12 years advising think tax matters i does just about anything to think of lawyers do some things and some negligence letters don't do. >> i'm from the mission and grew up and also there my whole life living there you see others question. some of them oldest and some look like me my age and a lot of them work nanny and childcare jobs and retail jobs i don't know it is being kind of

like a reminder that you're kind of lucky to be where you or i guess just the facts whether you haven't gone so far at all i want them to go maybe go on an intrauf for challenging that is facing things they can't get that job you know kind of challenge and maybe surprise themselves when they get that job and feel better. >> they have been women practicing law for many years but it was so few of them that a lot of the issues hadn't really come into play and some of them were fairly worked out and resolves like equal pay in partnerships in law firms mac

that women get fair assignments to be excluded and in the upper levels of government and law firms i consider myself more of a beneficiary of all the women that fought really difficult battles along the way

>> self-planning works to preserve and enhance the city what kind hispanic the environment in a variety of ways overhead plans to fwied other departments to open space and land use an urban design and a variety of other matters related to the physical urban environment planning projects include implementing code change or designing plaza or parks projects can be broad as proipd on overhead neighborhood planning effort typically include public involvement depending on the subjet a new lot or effect or be active in

the final process lots of people are troubled by they're moving loss of they're of what we preserve to be they're moving mid block or rear yard open space. >> one way to be involved attend a meeting to go it gives us and the neighbors to learn and participate dribble in future improvements meetings often take the form of open houses or focus groups or other stinks that allows you or your neighbors to provide feedback and ask questions the best way to insure you'll be alerted the community meetings sign up for the notification on the website by signing up using you'll receive the notifications of existing request the specific neighborhood or project type if you're language is a disability

accomodation please call us 72 hours before the event over the events staff will receive the input and publish the results on the website the notifications bans feedback from the public for example, the feedback you provide may change how a street corridors looks at or the web policy the get started in planning for our neighborhood or learner more mr. the upcoming visit the plans and programs package of our we are talking about with our feedback and participation that is important to us not everyone takes this so be proud of taking ann

>> >>mayor edwin m. lee: good morning, everyone. welcome to our city's navigation center. i have this opportunity to talk about the partnerships that we've created in our latest but on going challenge of helping to house our homeless the best we can as a city. let me begin by again saying thank you to former mayor gave and articulated a plan to end homelessness in our city and got ought of -- all of us in the city to give this high attention and our city to create homeless programs and homeward bound programs and incentivized

us to look at as many model as we can to housing rubric first and that's been our mantra. as i approached the challenges that i have with more people having suffered homelessness and working with our public health agencies, our homeless connect, our homeless center and leadership through the stories that they continue to provide to us about the challenges that families and youth and others face along with our human services agency, we also wanted to make sure that we formed additional partnerships to help us with this challenge. i think one of the best partnerships that we form is with our inter faith council because of their on going commitment and i know members of the board are here. i want to say thank you to our local

representative here david campos and also mark ferrell and julie christensen for their leadership and the rest of the board as we look at this model at the navigation center and try to figure out in this partnership what else we can do and do better at. the critical partnership with the interest faith council is not just the leadership they have been and working with el nino but working with our human services department and all of the agencies that want to help in this incredible challenge of people living on our streets. we must do more and we must do better and learning from the very examples that we've given to tomb -- homeless connect when they are

at bill gram and other parts of the city and we try to form even better ideas. the opportunity came about when the inter faith council had an opportunity to present to us a philanthropic idea to work with us and other agencies to put our best ideas forward at this navigation center. this truly is a center where people who are homeless and living on the streets can gets services at one center. it's an attempt to take on the challenges at our homeless shelters and input on the street and those that are working through the incredible services at the

service center working along the streets along with working with our public works department, our police department to try to provide the highest human touch for people who have the tremendous barriers of living on our streets. this navigation center has some of it's good values as we try not to say no to anybody. that when we invite people we try to invite the relationships that they built over perhaps sometimes many years on the streets, taking care of their pets, the things that they have a sense of belonging with. identify their property and take care of that and have a place where they can immediately clean up, have immediate attention on health services of support, mental

challenges that they might have on the behavioral side of it as well as just basic food and the inter faith council has been able to attract along with the episcopal community services a variety of food stock such that those can be here can have access to healthy foods 24/7 can get the shower and health needs on an on going basis on these sites with these portables that used to belong to public schools and the help of public works and againstity of philanthropic donors that we've been able to have very portable showers and bathroom facilities all in an effort to work with supervisors david campos because he was not interested basically in having the traditional

shelter here and supervisor which would be responsible to do and as we talked to other supervisors, we wanted to present a model. i believe now given that some of the mayors that came through some of the conference of mayors that this would be the international model. mayors from seattle, portland, vancouver, have sent delegations here to review what we are doing here because they are facing similar challenges in their city and we are comparing notes along with los angeles, san jose and oakland. and by all accounts, our efrt and our model here has demonstrated that we have done better and we can do more and better. such that, this navigation center given all of it's collaboration, the

systems we put in, the non-profits that we put in. the surrounding and embracement of our clergy as well as those that are advocating for the rights of homeless to be respected in a dignified way. they have all said i think without a doubt that this navigation center is the right way to do it shouldn't surprise you with some statistics that over 200 people with the last 5 months since this center has started has been served that 60 have moved into permanent sustainable housing off site. 34 interesting enough, 34 individuals have raised their hands and said i have gotten to a point where you help me identified a support system where i can go home and be more successful.

there are currently 71 persons here right now living and getting the support services, awaiting the permanent housing that we are negotiating. so all in all, the brief time that we've had with everybody's level of cooperation and with the again the housing first services being part of that, the navigation center with it's goals have been very successful to the point where today's announcement is not just to give you some background about the center in the navigation center in how it works. later on we'll have someone who has gone through the center to talk to you directly about what this means to him, but also to allow the center to effectuate in a way that this

center approaches homelessness. we will begin immediately of reprioritizing of existing fund that exist in our human services agencies and public health to call for an additional $3 million to be put in both an expansion and another navigation center. the location of which we have yet to have, but we know this is a good model. and working with our budget office, working with beven's input and working with non-profits, we believe an expansion and working with the navigation center, i'm going next year of identifying two or three more of these navigation centers to make an even more impact around the thousands of people that are homeless in san francisco. i believe we can do that and i believe this model can be

had. we are not doing it alone, we could not do it alone. i think we have affected this private partnership so deeply and encouraged the private sector that we want to establish a fund. we are going to call it navigation partnership fund where we will deposit our initial $3 million that the city will have and ask the private sector to match it. to match it in a way in which it's not just money. but that they will match it only when they see the use of the city money going towards a very successful program as we have demonstrated here so that their private money can then be viewed as being used very much in an accountable level to be matched up with the city money. we expect and

we hope that as we introduce this model and bring more private citizens and companies in to educate them about homelessness and about the causes of it that we will at the same time say that this is part of the solution. now, i say part of it in a very deliberate way because none of the supervisors will say that the navigation center is in and of itself the answer. it's still affordable housing that is at the end result. this has also been the end result for all of our shelters, for all of our service programs. we want to have sustained housing but are people ready for it? i think coming to the navigation center and getting the support we have will get them there back up to this navigation center and certainly by the end of this year are

over 500 units of housing primarily in affordable residential hotel units that the city and the private sector are mass releasing. that is an incredible part of the answer and that by this mid-september, we will have about 150 of those units identified so as people move in, they know where they are going to be ending up. by mid-october, another 150 units have been mass released by the mayor's office of housing and the housing coordinator and all the other agencies working together. now, the big difference and of course we will have the target of 500 by the end of the year. the big difference is this: i know cecil knows this, episcopal knows this, inter faith knows this, it is never ever about just the

brick and mortar, is it? it's about the people. it's about what they need on an on going basis so they can more than survive. they have to be suessful. they have job training programs helping. we have support systems for our transitional age youth that they can not do without because they have got skill training. they have to get back on education levels. they have to get to jobs that they can use the earnings of which they can afford to live here. for so homeless population it's no different. in an around the south of market area or tenderloin, we know that if we don't do more than just the brick and mortar, that they will be no different than those that are living there. we have to have services on site. where we

mass released these, we made an agreement with the residential hotel owners and i want to thank them for being great people and working with us because we are going to invest in the building and management of those buildings and we are going get the ability to have a number of those residents to appeal to a certain council to keep track to make sure people are being taken care of. and continue to refer them to services and many of those will have services on-site and those will invest in the elevators and sro's and things that they do in massive affordable housing on a daily bases. they operate very low income affordable housing just like our non-profit sector that we are

working deliberately on that are passing this incredible bond that we have that they though that they have to have asset management as part of that system. so, we have this model of a navigation center that begun with some great philanthropic ideas but also worked reality with our supervisors and our homeless advocates and service providers in the homeless connect to cause a center that had not only an enriched level of services, but we also have the end result which is housing at the benefit that we are taking care of as well. it not to say and i'm not going to promise 100 % for all of this, as a matter of fact some people decided it wasn't for them and they are back in shelters and 17% said i want to

go home. there is strong enough of a system of support i want to have. i think this is humanity we want to have in our city. we do have voices that are formally homeless individuals that keep advising us. we want to keep our ear open to those that we help so we that on the long-term we have the long-term answers. it is not just about announcing 1,000 or 2 or 3,000 units. it's about how we do it as a city. it's a story i want to tell to take the opportunity to say that more people will be off of our streets not because we want to move them to another part of the city. supervisors don't want to hear that either. they want answers and i think we are providing them with the collaborative answer that people are seeking the longer and more sustainable answer and allows people that

are form erly homeless to allow the ability to get some support to be job ready or they can access services they are not -- able to to live a richer life in the city of san francisco. i think we are already acknowledging how expensive this city is. that is why the city government is stepping up to cause this to happen but we are also going to say that we need the private sector to step it up as well. we will ask all the businesses whether it's the chamber of commerce, the tech companies, the hospitals, take a look at this model. come down here. visit, talk with the individuals and if you agree with us, with our best step forward, i want to make sure that those who have been involved in the

challenge of homelessness see our city's commitment as deep as well as is wide and that we want to make sure we have all the foundational answers for this. and if it's the only way you can do that is to interview those that come to the center and talk to them about whether their lives are changing and whether we are doing the right things or not. it doesn't end with just the the center, but it does an on going basis to have a lot of partnerships to continue to recognize this is an on going thing. i want more of our people living on the streets to be off the streets for the right reasons. this incredible weather that we are having has caused a lot of people to be on the streets at night and the lifestyle of things that happen on our streets are very dangerous to them, to their health, to their well being. we have to have these kinds of answers that allow

people to have long-term homes. this is the work of the navigation center. i'm proud of the people that staffed this place from episcopal to public health, behavioral, mental health, staff, neighborhood center, mission center, remind me of everybody that's down here. they smile when they have visitors because they are proud of work that they are doing. i want to give kudos to all of them and human services. this is a model that is working well and i want to be able to expand it. with that, let me proudly introduce supervisor mark farrell who has been paying a lot of attention to this and what it means to us here. [ applause ]

>>supervisor mark farrell: thanks, mayor lee. homelessness has been a serious situation for decades. there is no solving this issue. what it does say is staying commitment on behalf of the city and on behalf of all of our residents. housing will always be our first priority, always. but also look at creative new ideas over a period of time that will make a difference in the lives of those living on our streets and all of san francisco residents. to me this navigation center represents not only an embodiment of new creative thinking of how we are going to take people off our streets in an environment that will bring them on a volunteer basis in this navigation center but also represent the ability of allowing the private sector to get involved to really address something that is more attractive to our

city and how we are going to help them. whether it's homeward bound that mayor lee mentioned whether it the laws we passed last year or navigation centers. this is what we need to be doing as a city. we need to make sure this is a top priority for our entire city of san francisco. i want to congratulate not only mayor lee for this, but our budget committee and i want to share with you the 1st hand this administration has had and to all of those that are involved in this city not just citywide but in particular, i want to talk deven duffy, it is your vision here. [ applause ] with the coolest sun glasses that exist in san francisco right now to

bobby garcia, all the other providers that worked with us in our community and michael and rita here as well. thank you to all of my colleagues, supervisors campos and christensen. it's a great thing when we come together with new ideas and to benefit all of our residents and to bring the private sector in. i'm proud to celebrate with the mayor this navigation center and also the future to continued bringing of the private sector into continuing to work on our city's issues. to me it represents an incredible step in the right direction. where we need to go with the city. i'm excited for the future. i want to

congratulate everyone today and the work and the best is yet to come. i want to introduce a true friend who cares about this issue as well supervisor david campos. [ applause ] >>supervisor david campos: thank you, mark. working on the budget specifically on this issue. mr. mayor to supervisor christensen welcome to the mission to district 9. i want to just be completely honest. we are not going to solve the issue of homelessness today. i don't know that this city or any city for that matter can really completely eradicate homelessness. but what i have seen since my not only tenure as a supervisor but as a police commissioner and someone who has lived in san francisco for a long time that

when it comes to homelessness, we really have to be smart about how we deal with the issue. and i think that we need to get away from some of the extremes that we have seen in the past. the idea that somehow the status quo is fine and we deal with homelessness by not looking at it and not thinking about it and the other extreme that we somehow deal with homelessness by criminalizing the homeless. those strategies do not work. when beven duffy first approached me about the navigation center and i talked to the mayor, it was important for me that we in district nine and specifically in the mission that we stepped up to make this happen. my experience is that whenever you talk about homelessness on the board of supervisors there is always apprehension about bringing into the district anything that has to do with that population. it was

important for me that district 9 and the mission approach it differently and say you know what, we will tackle that issue. so, before anything is said, i want to thank the people with district 9 and specifically the people of the mission that helped to make this happen because [ applause ] because a navigation center like this does not happen over night. before even the concept was something we could talk about, beven and i had to meet with community member and community member with school parents, with the principals, teachers, merchants association, with the residents with anyone we knew that would be impacted by this. it took months to get to that point. it wasn't only until we did all of that work that we were able to bring this to what it is today. so, my message to the rest of the city

is as grateful as wonderful as i think it is that district nine did this, other parts of the city also need to step up to the plate. we in district nine and we in the mission in particular are proud that we have been carrying this responsibility. but this is something that to really address it, other neighborhoods have to do the same. because what's happening right now, i can tell you is that the numbers of homeless folks that are moving into this area are increasing. i think to some extent maybe that if they are in this neighborhood that somehow they can get priority to this navigation center. there are some who feel that. so what's happening is is that we in this navigation center do not have the capacity to really address all the need that's out there, not only the need in this neighborhood but the need

throughout the city. there are people who are trying to get in here and we have to do a better job. i am very excited and i want to thank the mayor for the fact that we will be opening another center. i personally think that we need 5-6 navigation? san francisco to really begin to address the level of need. also the navigation center as critical as important as it is is only part of the equation because the ultimate solution has to be permanent housing. so, mr. mayor, i look forward to continuing partnering with you and looking forward to working with my colleagues and decided where else these navigation centers will go we will make ourselves available to share with you the lessons learned and our thoughts and i think it's only fitting that this council and city is so involved

because the city of frances should be the city that gets this right. with that, i'm proud to introduce one meef colleagues on the board of supervisors, the supervisor for district 3, supervisor christensen. >> so lots of people to thank. lots of history. i would like to confine my remarks to three things. to the citizens of this city get it and people who have been living on the streets because they have no home and no leg up. we understand their plight in our community is an important issue and we are on it. secondly, to this particular place, to beven duffy and his team and i think parks and recreation had a hand in this. thank you. i have been watching this center since before it's

opening. i think i toured with deven. i was proud to be in south of market for the first people that moved out of the center into housing and i was especially happy to be here with senator diane feinstein a week ago who took a very particular interest in this program and in its opportunities. so it is wonderful with an issue that seems so intractable and often so lacking in hope that we have come up with at least one step that provides a chance that we can do something about this. but thirdly and this is the most important thing i would like to say today, to the person whose contribution made this possible. who may even be among us today, i don't know. thank you. your money has been put to good use. wonderful things are happening here. and secondly, an invitation to people who are out there that haven't stepped up. to the companies who have

not discovered philanthropy yet. to people who want to help, this is a good place to put in philanthropic system to make a real difference in people's lives and in the lives of our communities as a whole. come join us. come make these new centers happen and we'll be looking for possibilities in district 3 and we'll make many more of these happy place an i hope everyone will help to that end. thank you. [ applause ] >> our jewish sisters and brothers are about to embark on the holiest time of their year, and a time of season of new beginnings. i draw from the sacred text of the jewish people, the book of proverbs

that say the without the vision the people will parish. it's a vision of action and we are blessed to see this. i want to share 2 stories with you about how we came to this day because in order to get this up and running in the time constraints that we are -- were given us we want to make sure at the inter faith council's part that we can get the funding mechanism placed within the year. we were so grateful to be able to partner but it took a little work to get there. the meeting of our board took place on the second thursday of december. i don't know if you remember what that day was like here. it wasn't as beautiful as it is today. there's no power this this city and all the schools were closed. there

were torrential rains. we had done all of our due diligence and to just get a letter to talk about the significance of this and the staff said no, we won't give that to you and i said why? because the mayor wants to come himself and impress upon your board the significant of this project and he did. he made a little reference to el nino. and in his statement to our board which i think everybody will remember because we met by candlelight. there was no power. he says we are here today to pass resolutions because the people that need this shelter the most are the ones that are out there getting wet now. and i remember that like yesterday. and we felt very blessed unanimously to have embraced this project and to stay active with it. we were asked

often by the press, is this going to work? is this going to be a success? people of faith can talk prophetically. i can tell you why, having an opportunity to tour this site with the mayor and owner. the mayor new every inch of what was happening here in this building and that vision i can see it was going to work and the genuine confidence in the done or and it allowed it to be created. and the creativity to be able to create coalitions with the board of supervisors, the neighbors, the city department heads and the non-profits. that was a sign that this was going to work. we are very thankful to have

been at the ground floor of this pilot project and we so pray to see this replicated and continue our commitment. we've been in the business of the inter faith winter shelter for over 25 years. mr. mayor, thank you for allowing us to be involved in this. i actually get and i want to recognize human services agencies commissioner rita soems who is here. she's the president of our council and she has a very important vision. i'm proud to be here to present our client. victor and his partner cynthia on the street for 25 years. it wasn't until entry into this place where they can see a road to hope, a road to possibility.

victor, would you come and share with us a little bit your story. [ applause ] >> this is a story about empowering me. it took a strong woman to give me that vision, that believed in myself. that means a lot to me. this woman right here. [ laughter ] you know, that is what is really great about this place because as you know, these streets can tear you down. you can be out there fighting and running the streets and using drugs, whatever. it is what brought you to that point in our society. in this society

you need hope and believe and everybody that deserves a chance to have a life, to be a part -- productive part of our society in this world. she gave me that hope because i was living up under a bridge. i went to el nino as you talked about last time on a tarp with safe way baskets. it not what you want to go through. torrential rain, everything wet, alone. this woman inspired me. she seen something in me just like deven who said i'm coming back to get you. for a city official to tell somebody that and to come back to get

that person no matter if it was a day or 2 months later. he said believe in me and i did. i'm here to testify to it. that's important to me. for the next place to have a place to come to. it's not easy to be in the streets. this is a great thing. to take you off the street and put you in a living environment is a shock. i know many people that went in off the streets and just went right back out. because they weren't ready for it. this place here. it teaches you the life skills which is so important. it makes you feel good about yourself where you can go to have a place to wash your clothes. a place to take a shower everyday. a

clean environment. not just some hotel where everybody just comes off the streets with whatever. this is a clean environment. it's teaching you. you have a kitchen. you have staff, the support. they support us in getting our drivers license, marriage license, domestic partnership. it all factors in to giving that person a sense of being. that is what is so really important to have a sense of being of accomplishment and they help you on that way by giving you wake up calls. you can't have someone that lives moment to moment on a whim and expect them to go, okay, i have an 8:00 appointment today and after that i have another 2:00 appointment and it's difficult for that person to meet that because

it's living outside. every minute, it can change. your life can change. somebody can come in, someone can interact with your life and change the whole, everything that you have planned to do and it will change. this place gives that you buffer and opportunities to sit down and think about it, no pressure. they are here for us. that's what's made my. it hasn't been an easy road. i'm used to getting up every morning thinking about how i'm going to eat, how i'm going to take care of her. what i'm going to do to take care of her. that's on the top of my head. put you in a basket. whatever, recycling, whatever. a few dollars to do that. if i

had to pick her up and put her in a basket and put her in there and got pulled over for it. our police department said this woman coma toes in this traffic cart is getting pushed. they were worried. [ applause ] >> that officer that pulled me over cared enough about seeing something like that, a person with another human being in a basket. that's what it's all about. that's what beven showed me. he cared enough about me for meeting me and we all do. everybody. we love a chance. thank you. i won't say anything more. [ applause ]

>> thank you, victor. we have more people to serve, more people to come through. >>mayor edwin m. lee: one significant thing that i know supervisor campos mentioned. when we talked about this idea, we also talked about it being temporary. the reason is this is a site for now and hopefully less than a year construction will start in 160 affordable units, that this mission and community deserve and need yesterday. we are moving very quickly on that. but it also says to all of us that, we only have a certain period of time to show what we've got. we do have time pressures because we need to get people off the street before they encounter things they can't handle. this is where the time frames are important to the accountability and the use of the public funds as well as the

private funds. so we are dedicated not just to ideas, not just to the programs but on a very deliberate life changing transformative time changing for people to get their lives in order and this is what is part of the discipline in the navigation center. i want to assure that the supervisors as we promised it would be temporary and it is in fact temporary because these sites don't run off very often. we are already identifying other areas of the city and we need the similar cooperation that we fortunately had here by community representative, residents, the school district and everyone here watching what's going on they have been supportive of the pets and the property and the level of activity

that's been here. we are on a quest to create more navigation centers. we are on a quest to use the city's money wisely and to create more partnerships with our religious community, our residents, our non-profits that are incredibly important to this. thank you for visiting the center and thank you for listening to the speeches and there will be more folks to ask more questions and we anticipate that our approach here will cause more people to come and take a close look at this model and work with us. thank you very much. >>

>> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it looks at good and tastes good and it is good in my mouth pretty amazing. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i am the executive chef i've been here as a chef at la concina since 2005

reason we do the festival and the reason we started to celebrate the spirit and talent and trivia and the hard work of the women in the la concina program if you walk up to my one on the block an owner operated routine i recipient it's a they're going to be doing the cooking from scratch where in the world can you find that >> i'm one of the owners we do rolls that are like suburbia that is crisp on the outside and this is rolled you up we don't this it has chinese sister-in-law and a little bit of entertain sprouts and we love it here. >> there are 6 grilled cheese

grilled to the crisp on the outside outstanding salsa and a lot of things to dip it knocks you out and it's spicecy and delicious i was the first person that came here and we were not prepared for this every year we're prepared everybody thinks what they're doing and we can cookout of our home and so the festivals were part of the group we shove what we do and we w we tried to capture the spirit of xrifs. >> and there from there to

sales and the hard part of the sales is 250 assess our market and creating a market opportunity giving limited risks and sales experience to our guys and 12:27 p.m. >> good afternoon today is wednesday, september 23, 2015, this is the regular meeting of the b commission please turn off all electronic devices commissioners, the first item on your agenda roll call. >> commissioner president mccarthy commissioner vice president mar commissioner clinch commissioner lee

commissioner mccray commissioner walker city manager commissioner president melgar is excused next it presidents familiarities to you to the commission to skrauft their schedule to host the september 2015 bic meeting in convenience felt obvious advance of the loma prieta kudos to dbi staff for the additional requests to launch the dbi seismic safety outreach preamble and supervisors of district 5 and 10 and awarded arrogance if working groups radio underway in helping san francisco prepare for the next big one thank you to director huey and others that participate in tomorrow's working group on the adu's which will be held at the firehouse in

fort mason on 6:00 p.m. by the apartment association that is an opportunity to explain explain the dbi process for the initiative by the mayor and the board of supervisors to increase the more affordable housing city to encourage the property owners to provide more affordable housing and the mayor's that the planning review fees for those who voluntarily legalize a occupant in early september this means the owners participating in the program can save $3,500 with the legalizing a unit we look forward to an increased number of issued permit thanks to the reductions and i'm sure my my fellow commissioners that

address that and thanks to david of the plan review service for assisting the owner by guiding him in the process and state in his letter he was helpful congratulations interest for our service and a big thank you to the directors office that provided a great customer service with issuing the permits and thank you for your professionalism and the members of the public anytime dbi we'd love response thanks to the fire department and wanting. >> ss puc who just convened the public meeting the board ordered the fire safety task force with 3 more public mergers the task force have about recommendation to improve fire and life safety in old multi-unit buildings we know are at risk for fatalities

and serious injuries a task force public hearing on october of and october 27th and a final meeting november 10th prior to the issuance of the task force report thanks to all dbi and all in the training class that taco took place place into september 4th to september 27th and by participating dbi staff is better to implement the safety codes that are so important to san francisco special thanks to ron tom and beginning emergency corresponds who are preparing for a rehearsal this october with dbi department operation center to enable staff to have response skills so we're ready for the next major earth additional a final not the simulations of the

dbi for the quarter 32015 please send our nominations to william strong at city government as soon as possible to enable the employee recognize committee to choose their member and madam secretary this concludes my announcements. >> any questions on the president announcement item 3 general public comment the dbi will take members of the public on issues not on the agenda seeing none, item 4 the 5th street floor and over-the-counter process.

>> good morning commissioner president mccarthy and commissioners thank you for giving me the opportunity for the over-the-counter process at our last commission meeting on august 14th commissioner vice president mar had questions we hope to answer those questions through our presentation and it's processes so what do we do before i start, i want to give you quick facts of the occ process is on the affirmation floor by 45 plan checkers and there are 14 within those 45 plan checkers are standard plan checkers and 7 mechanic engineers assist by 24 collects clerks that includes the bureaucracy not

over-the-counter a public counter this is located on the first floor and gives direction and fist floor in take and payment section as mentioned we patrolled all of permit for occ on the fist floor the first and second floor are wherewith the submitted plans go on the forgives floor the permit application requires one hour to process for a discipline sometimes you can break it up for mechanic and one hour for structural and slide 4. >> the occ process on the forgives floor a fast and efficient not only it dbi - occ

locked on this floor we're joined by public works and puc and public works and planning because of this many permit are approved on the same day and they can rapidly go to the process it is a one stop process within a timely manner we've gotten great feedback from the customers on it number 5. >> number 5 is a general overview of the over-the-counter process it shows what you - what the minimal amount of stoogsz to navigate the help desk it is staffed by three or four clerks they give a very quick review

they don't scan only to simmer you get the right form that is filled out properly and if someone has a question about a block they'll find it if everything smekz checks out you're allowed to go over-the-counter and starts at the 2, 3, 4 take it is much more in depth i'll speak more on this and shows you go to the actual plan check your issued comnts if you get approval you'll go to the payment counter that is where the permit is issued slide 6

okay like i say those are 3 points of in take start at the first floor if it is an involved job with planning conditional use you will be directed to the central bureau your plan is in taxed and submitted and usually outside the department the planning department if this is not and deemed small enough to be looked at within the one hour rule your directed to occ open is first floor on the fist floor i'm sorry on the fifth floor the in take they friday morning assign you a number you're in the system they look for a plan size, they look

is it okay - is this plan okay for to be scanned and micro filmed that at a later time they check for font size and check the index and they don't give you a plan check on everything but the code if it is deemed acceptable you get and number and allowed to go to plan check. >> the applicant now may proceeded to lane context for the project is a sign-in sheet on a first come first there they'll to fill out the name and if no response to the name the applicant must start at the bottom and after the plans are marked approvaled a written plan

is approved and it is kept on a log for future checks when corrections are made the applicant may reassign the list for project review they have the same plan and engineer or same plans extraordinarily for completeness when the applicant wants to see the same folks it is the recheck a reviewed as far as the records retention the clerk book on fist floor and those records are kept for one year the sign in sheets/86 are reviewed by the floor manager and sent to the second floor by the deputy director the sign in sheila's sheets are kept up to 3 years. >> once you have an approved -

now our permit will be approved you go to payment this is issued that's the difference after it is approved the payment collect clerk on the fifths floor should verify that every item matches the submitted application and the clerk should sign occupy the sign in list in order to verify architect and engineer and add contractor if not already added or add the owner for the database and the documents provide the sufficient documentation fire and planning and fire inspection and san francisco public works dpw street spaces and mta and sidewalks a number of pages on the plan and then also, if there's a fire only permit you charge for the fire

department not the building inspection you enter the information and po s to check the scanner are the clipper card it swiped and the permit is printed and now done and that's - >> number 7 a list that was asked and it's if august in august we in dbi we this list claims we did one .739 i hesitate some are doubled counted but i can with

confidence i'll tell you we did well over a billion dollars in august for approvals and as you can see we have what 87 pages and it is every permit that came interest dbi in august and captures two paid for the permit firm name, the roll, the contractor, the owner, the building address pretty comprehensive and that's it if there are any questions i object to take them. >> thank you deputy director and i'll say we have recognition first, the staff for this comprehensive analysis to give us the data we need to have this decision and commissioner mar. >> to first of all, deputy director sweeney and huey i wanted to thank you guys for

putting together this report i was the one that asked for it before i get into the harder questions he want to say the sheer number of permit issued is a very good thing in the sense the amount of work this department does and i wish that our sisters and brothers in planning maybe did a little bit more and we would not be forced into kind of a gridlock situation and sometimes it is the numbers we have to do i think which is kind of raises why i asked for to report and the harder questions i'll ask as a followup one of the things my fellow commissioners know i was one of the fans for the fifth floor when we killed q masking a

lot of questions from the homeowners and small office spaces saying how are we're going to disprove what we've been accused of the preferential treatment for contractors and previous rental treatment some for the purpose get they're quickly and some people wait in line i think this is recognized by the mayor and how much revenue we bring in the reason i asked for this report is there is sill still concerns the reason he keep push we've got to o get to last night on the agenda i did is with this kind

of data the only way to disprove some of that the public transparently see this is the permit we give out this is who checks that and this is the person we check that for i only asked for one 90 month this is a lot of work i apologize to staff i know they did a lot of work to put this together and i know that some commissioners complained how heavy their packet is because of agenda. >> but it is here on behalf of the appellant and we killed a lot of trees and in color at the same time there is still questions i have so for example, you know one of the first questions he have is this reflective of all the over-the-counter permits in august any way because you talked about a 3 step process

you come in and go the fifth floor and get triage we used to call it triage if this is being small enough you can head up to the fist floor but complicated or has ottawa other issues written e lifework variance you have to go to planning we understand that but i've also been told that a lot of people don't have to go do the fist floor walk in and call somebody heal ahead of time and walk their appointment to the plan checker i'm asking if he - because no sign in for the first floor not data for who comes. >> the first floor is triage. >> yeah. if we looked at every permit in august hundred percent over-the-counter.

>> i believe they are. >> hundred percent. >> yes. that's what i asked to be provided. >> i want to stop here. >> do we want to hear public comment or then - i'm open do you want to. >> i thought we were going to go first. >> i'm just open okay. >> so commissioner walker please yeah. >> great. >> thank you really for putting this together i know it is a lot of information and to support commissioner mars request we deal with it and it's good to have all the information to look at the volume of work and if it is working or not especially number two, of the fact we tried to deal with the issue by putting in q masking did work we're trying to make sure we're following up and doing due

diligence to provide equal opportunity and equal service to every member of the public this is great i know it is a lot of work we appreciate it here i have a question because there is a lot of issues around land use conflicts i know that is a planning issue but as i live in an area that has a lot of pdr which is you know manufacturing and industrial a lot of occasions tech offices come in that immediately causes problems for the manufacturing and the art eric businesses we use as we look at this schart there is a point at which the occupancy is evaluated

do we take the word of person applying for the permit as the use, huh? how do we determine what a company is do if their mosque into an industrial area he personally know there is a lot of office use in pdr i want our department to help with so how do we deal with that. >> first off you live in the north mission and yeah. >> most of buildings built before 1940 we don't have the original plans and let's it is a it when it was industrial property nobody living there before you my time nobody cares it is industrial property and maybe the building inspection went down there the building inspection and planning department are having

conversations i believe we're putting together a map similar to the south of market map for other displacement because we have problems with the people going into the old industrial property turning it into residential we have a moratorium distinct south van ness and market i believe bryant so the planning department and building inspection are talking putting together a map for the north mission let me back up any pdr district. >> it is also along the waterfront. >> planning m right direction r disrespects south of market there will be like a check once you see the check oh, because your not pdrs you have to go to planning. >> oh, that's great. >> so there won't be any over-the-counter per say until you take care of that. >> that is a very good solution

i think i mean it seems to me looked at the history of permit and what not getting us here people call it whatever they want to on the application we try to help i am not in a different world it didn't matter but certainly now and appreciate that we need to do that on a lot of issues on planning. >> right now what happens it is looked at briefly on the first floor they're triaging half the thought people are coming down and saying hey, i'm going open of an additional or i have a technical question realtors come in and say y where do i go. >> some people are told point blank you have to go to the planning department so a lot of the stuff is that and a lot of is like homeowners they don't

know what this is and have to be told we do not put pressure but on the first floor into in take that's one of the things like for the story we require them to look at google although this is not the greatest it is a down hill lot you - they don't see the two stories we try our best a lot of items on our people everything on the form 348 is verified the best we can so so you. >> so there's a point they check that against the r data so unit numbers or those types of things and if there is a conflict we send to planning.

>> you have to get documentation educate you're saying an f two everything we're shown those are storage units we don't agree you'll say have to show us a cf c sometimes, we don't do the best job in records management to update. >> especially in older buildings not a history of permits. >> what not yeah, okay. that's great appreciate >> a quick follow-up besides this being a complete form 8 for the month does everybody have to come in. >> 3 years. >> oh, do they have to come through - everybody has to stop at the first floor first there's a lot of people with experience - and they head straight up to the fist floor. >> you'll be surprised a lot of

people stop and engineers they kind of want to know what's union on our database okay. this is an right direction r 3 and in take says it's an r one so they have to start on the fifths floor anyway. >> i'm concerned the sign ins i know there is a sign-in sheet which you know still rubs me the wrong way that's okay there are plan checkers on this second floor. >> it is appointment only that's in take or nc c they can call you up and say i've got our corrections can i see you a troushgs or 1 o'clock. >> how do we know that checkers

waited in line or are those for recheck. >> he get our number through a clerk not a billing kindly. >> that number it is q masking if comes on the board we're talking about a paper sign-in sheet basically. >> it's been a long time since i was on the fist floor but a simple sign-in sheet sometimes in terms of who is signing. >> from time to time i find them. >> i think you're asking if you make an appointment on the second floor without going to the first floor. >> you're not supposed to. >> it is possible. >> it is possible. >> can we capture the numbers. >> it is against the rules for any of my plan checkers to entertain anyone for occ you're going around the system if we

catch you, your in trouble. >> sorry commissioner mars point this reoccurs we're trying to get to the transparency process somebody couples and there say they go back to a different department it is in the same swoop that person might go back to that plan checker. >> that's okay. >> i don't want to interpret it as starting over. >> if someone makes a comment about our initial in take. >> your finishing on the job. >> no objection. >> no. >> can i get the overhead. >> then let's talk about if i may about the policing of it obviously like every large i mean the vacuum i'm not going to

say that someone tries to abuse the system; right? you and i have a san francisco historic preservation commission of people if i were a betting man, you could count them in your hand and someone tries to keep doing it again and again their staff are on to them is that too much for the record. >> they're designed professionals. >> their trying to clip corners. >> some people do. >> i've find people complaining particularly they've spent that 34 hours but in their eyes a two hour job. >> i'm not proud of that. >> but they complain i asked them it's been 20 minutes so i find when you actually investigate and ask the questions it didn't add up and they talk about a experience a

month ago. >> if you show up at the billing department at 7:30 you can shoot a can off but if you look at that like the permit services that is called i scratched my head who is this guy a turns he's the guy from sears restraining order buck gets 25 there's a permit we have a program there if you are a frequent flier you know the system and everything is filed out beautifully he types everything he comes in at 7:30 there are windows and kitchen and baths and works for a couple of roofing companies charges 25 a permit and comes in he might have up to 12 permit and hands them and gets them and pays for them we offer that to all the roofers and window companies and the guys that are doing kitchens

and baths. >> just to keep them moving and so that actually is interesting comment i got from anyone that was complaining about upcoming how long some of the things took for people without expediteers everybody should have an expediteers those people are professional their seasoned veterans. >> (multiple voices). >> if there were any assistance like do something about the service if you're a lost person or didn't file out you could get a tip iuoe how to fill out the form. >> in the next few months three to four clerks and one is

dedicated to that. >> the only time i was there people complain of the payment it took a little bit longer than. >> it is in the middle of the and might be to the middle of day to pay their payment i kind of get did you go through the monoxides and it takes the longtime part. >> the expediteers are not in line from 11 to 2 it is point also usually 7:30 or 8:30. >> that's the best time to come in. >> director you were putting your hand up and first of all, commissioner mar mentioned the q masking we temporarily put it out it is not you know running

in our department right now with 6 stories back and forth we moved to the new building we reconsider it because it will be on the same floor to run that a couple of things you mentioned we open 7:30 because we try to help the small contractor and the homeowner and then especially, when one item you mention in the occs when those homeowner want to remodel their kitchen and bath go and they can go right away to get the permit until wron one hour or less that's what you're department we try to help the small contractor additional homework that's why we moved to 7:30 and also to mention the process in the future we think about online too

but right now you know still shuffling a lot of stuff but we - you can find my safe is doing something out of ordinary give me the name i'll not hesitate to do any action okay. but i perception you can say nothing you want but i'll see all the items people also contain it takes longer but you know the same i'm sitting thirty minutes but say 4 hours and i run through the whole thing i watch it on second floor all of them are doing the check you see they are going upstairs but we find someone to appointment to

do those that will take action my deputy director mr. sweeney will not hesitate to do it give us the name we go after those individuals and commissioner mar. >> sorry to hog i appreciate that and i think one of the issues on the over-the-counter is not actually waiting two along i here that it is from some folks they feel probability some permits that go through planning they're bigger we originally thought and what happens again, i feel like planning should be a little bit quicker for everybody but at the same time what i'm concerned about is two things one of the one hour rule which is that some people feel that is substantive one hour there is massive plans

or massive commercial property that are doing tons of work in a building but every office is being remodel it is the same but that's one question is that how many orally permits can you pull in one address is it unlimited and also one hour rule how do we decide that you know, i have raised this in the past even though i'm not a designer or a contractor if - what can we have a more technical rule than a one hour rule. >> it, it is difficult i have plan checkers that are extremely detailed they're one hour and some of my faster plan checkers that is night and day someone

goes to one of my plan checkers or engineers that are slower and turned down they have the right of appeal go to the floor manager probable three or four times a week i get somebody that comes to me and request i take into account their permit i did one yesterday for wendy argon she works for a general license contractor he have that right of of appeal not because a plan checker says not door is closely on you. >> this is a reverse question which is not we're giving we're not fast enough on the permit some people feel this is favorism we're issuing two many permits for big projects maybe should go to planning and next thing you know. >> a single-family dwellings

goes to planning any addition goes to planning so really occ the vast majority is it stuff in the building nonetheless you're talking about a ti but the most popular thing is ada. >> and commissioner mar one thing we 80 have to understand what triggers planning and go to the building and change it materially if you're remodeling and opening the floor and a dbi scenario noted to you commissioner walker i'm not talking about the use this. >> the one thing that happened. >> (multiple voices). >> so i think if you have people wise enough to go to

planning i have talked to one of the things i find is when we get to those situations it is misinformation out there things - when we get a project and say why did this project not go we usually get to the bottom and understand why that happens. >> keep in mind 90 percent come over the orally and 10 percent won't ask the document this is our back check and the corridor is a our cattle prod. >> in terms of if you los angeles county it you'll see permits their valuation of $1 and permits for 20 over and over thirty thousand what we do with those we'll call the customer the other imply and say hi we've got a permit for $20,000 fill

out a form and we'll let you go over-the-counter we're trying to get more and more over-the-counter. >> director. >> commissioner mar to answer your question my field i work in a condo for a long time and deal with customer and look at the drawings myself as a civil engineer when the customer come in we have a ab which one group you know for example you changing use no way to issue a condo right away we'll reject it but the for manager or anyone how can the change the use to over-the-counter we have the ab to say which one to what and second lots of judgment call for example, a single example thank you, however, the drawings you're only looking a few handicap it is combined this is

a reference and don't need to do too much that depends on the plan checker the experience that's why we need more training for the staff and then we put more information sheet out we'll interpret the same thing as the public everybody goes to the same thing but, of course, human being are a little bit different we want to level it alleyway off that's why we have the training so we will do the same thing we closely monitor every job and as you may know some plan checkers are easier but you know anyone goes through the same thing but to answer your question how do you know this is one hour why not 10 minutes my planners 90 know no way to finish it in 10

minutes i have no problem to help my staff help that he i had a tougher job from a to b with the floor open we rejected them 3 times but you know that's lots back and forth fighting all judgment call that's why we truit try to help the staff you know but their wronged we need to ask them to correct it that's all. >> i think we've answered once again thank you on behalf of the commissioners and it's nice to have this conversation we have to remind ourselves you say one billion dollars. >> it says 1.7 or 2 point or 3 i think 440 in mechanic check.

>> just alone. >> just keep in mind we don't have any more space for plan checkers we have one and now moving clerks back because we can't keep up that the volume and we're not doing what we are supposed to do we're supposed to start site permits within two weeks and regular permits within three weeks that's a load. >> well supportive of the new this on the record everybody on one floor and bring back this (laughter). >> that will be debated so otherwise that is public comment. >> public comment on item 4. >> thank you

i think this discussion is another example where data would prove the quality of the discussion and why it is important i think specifically two examples if you had electronic sign in then you could measure the lapsed time when someone signed in and served also, if you had transactions times you get look at how long it takes to serve a specific transaction so again, the absent of data is really holding back the bic in making good decisions and i guess we'll find out last night in the meeting. >> thank you your name. >> jerry traveler. >> thank you. >> i second that. >> i third, that. >> next speaker >> good morning, commissioners

joe architect in the city a long time customer of the permit process since 1983 permits should be easy to get and expediteers the public coming for a fast permit not so much but someone 0 on the first floor to tell a preliminary you want to add space to our bathroom but if you took that act out of your application you getting could get it over-the-counter expediteers know that it should be fast and efficient and the fifth floor is great it with works well, the departments are not represented in the numbers i hear not enough room we need the planners on the same floor that will provides

transparency the most that staff has spent preparing this report would be done by an i t person and the machine will do it overnight not a reason to be laborious over the work on the 3 points of in take and firefighter everyone should be assigned and a a number not just the people that know to go to the first floor or fifth floor and the license should include their registration you'll not get to go upstairs if you're on the fifth floor you don't get to continue and in take counter check the worksheet for the fees okay one show be able to get a permit online they should fill out the application and the

computer should tell them no, that's not the right evaluation. this scope of work when we check the contractors licenses and busy and insurance why not verify the occupancy of the building the owner of the building should provide their california's driver's license number of it is a corporation there is a chief the current letter dated and signs for the j.c. to allow an architect to pull an permit the conditions on the plans with the cf c are documented in the field licenses should be current for everyone the engineer and architect certify of insurance let's do all of this at wince to tie to building and public works and dpw where their evictions or

commercial or residential tenants what's the story count of the dates of construction and the accessibility could be answered online before you come there >> thank you, mr. butler and mr. sweeney for a matter of record here. >> i heard some inconsistent sisters as a contractor your license has to be current. >> done at in take you're not allowed to go further. >> agency a contractor you have to provide insurance. >> sometimes caught at in take always looked in payment. >> okay. >> so mr. bullying r byte letters comments the policies he's excusing their implemented.

>> which ones are not implemented and as a homeowner you're not - would it be consistent if you're going to take a permit auto at a homeowner not allowed to the fifth floor. >> the second floor or the fifths floor. >> if you're confident that your form is filled out right as i mentioned earlier most of design professionals most of expediteers start at the first floor that is usually somhing we want classification the database is there and as a homeowner if i have no contract i'm dialed to permits. >> right. >> in this case, i don't say to have a contractors license to demonstrate i'm the owner. >> sxhaushs. >> you do if you're - i can't be it further resolved build a 3 story. >> but a remodel permit sorry

go ahead. >> it seems to me a lot of the actions mentioned by mr. butler are the issue was more about the accusation taking care of i want to say it undermines the selma program there is a lot of it came back automateed and taking all the data and making sure the application it consistent with the data on record and you know go to the right place so this is those are the things we've talked about in the cecelia and making sure the fields are there so that can happen because it would help a lot if there were not options their supposed to have upcoming we used to kingdom

and pull a permit with any address we wanted it was not attached to a legal address 20 years ago but you could create an address any address now we have to have a real address and upheaval hopefully and able to check the physical records of use and the status of building but pretty soon online and not change the description by putting someone on an operation after what is true this is one of the reasons why some of us have been pushing feverly to get it implemented he think that all those points are valid i think most of folks in the department support that that is kind of where we're headed. >> commissioner

i agree that's part of transparency we're still using paper as part of sign-in sheet i appreciate deputy sweeney we keep the sign in she's for 3 years. >> yes. >> and there was the recheck list one year. >> it is kept for one year one half. >> so some of this pops up with the convert i've checked some of the complaints by the number of permits what happens oftentimes a contractor will picking up pull a permit to do foundation working; right? they'll pull one and the next thing you know they'll do the whole place that's another issue and so there should be a way for our staff not only them but the

neighbors and neighborhood groups to go online and say this address has 20 permits in the last year or this - >> you can do that today. >> you can but south park should be able to track the property. >> as far as the land use statistic that's done for me, the first few days of each month i track who is busy and who is not busy i've been doing that for over 3 years it gives them a picture of who is quick and their doing larger jobs it is provide by a clerk takes her 10 minutes to side and i can signaling tell what everybody dozen this hundred page plus review was done within a couple of hours all right.

>> so we're - what i'm trying to say we're partway there. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you deputy and obviously i concur with the fellow that changes a lot i want to be clear we're implementing a lot of policies are in place right now with regard to permit issuance any more - >> if no further public comment we'll go to item 5 director's report 4 a update think dbi financing. >> good afternoon, commissioners tara deputy director for the department of building inspection before you is the fiscal year year 2014-2015 year in report. >> it captured all the expenditures and revenues from

july 2014 through june 2015 and i'll go over a couple of the highlight on the revenue side as you can see the revenues are strong we collected over $70 million in fiscal year 2013-2014 or about $5 million more than budgeted it is actually still less than the fiscal year 2013-2014 but the second best year in the departments history that includes the implementation of the 7 percent reductions in fees of reply and the primary contributor it the plan and the electrical inspectors those are the two plan revenue over $5 million over budget and others 1.8 on the expertise side condition to have expertise savings as you can see driven by sailor savings and non-personal savings

our totaled f 2014 even with all the safes is we've spent more than 2013-2014 this year we're spending $55 million with salary spending up by $2 million we're starting to get there overall a balance it is large but decreasing the smallest last year 29 and the year before that $22 million and the year before that $15 million our budgeting is right side so we're actually doing a better job of budget and spending that's all i have on the fiscal year report i'll be happy to answer any questions and a couple of other financial updates if you have

questions i'll stop now. >> very good thank you, thank you deputy. >> a couple of updates in the current year the fees the mayor signed a new fee legislation on september 18th so the new fees are effective on september 19th we have it on our website at the last meeting commissioner mar you talked about this fiscal year to last year of the grant agreement so the grant will expire in june of 2016 so we will be issue a new report sometime by the beginning of 2016 and when do we issue the rfps. >> i'm sorry we'll issue the report in 2016 the rfp. >> all right. thank you. >> i have follow-up maybe a bigger picture thing in terms of

setting aside funds for the new building real estate is so crazy how are we situated in terms of funds and the air marked for the new infrastructure costs. >> right we've transferred some of the funds already to raeflt emt e real estate because we had an ongoing project so it doesn't impact the fees at all wear set with that. >> thank you. >> thank you deputy. >> item 5 b update on the impacted state or local legislation. >> good morning, commissioners bill strong with the legislative and affairs the fee legislation was signed by the mayor and will take effect on the 19 we're preceding to have those new fee

tables put through the computer system we are mentioned earlier that the ot c not the ot c but on october 5th supervisor wiener through land use as requested an update on the legalization of in-law units technically a one year look at requested if the legislation that year inspired expired in the middle of may wear a few months behind and still in a situation i told you last month issues 61 permits for legalization and another hundred still in review at planning i think among the other on - you know the adu's where aren't to

the seismic requirements you can add an adu that legislation took effect last april so far we'll have a 13 permit applications filed and planning is still looking at those and none has been issued planning tells me that possible two or three maybe issued relatively soon but for our working group purposes tomorrow that dropping out will be reporting on at the moment we need more public awareness about this program i'm hoping that tomorrow nights working group will stimulate the adu opportunities as you may know that's been expanding to supervisorial district 3 and 8 those are take effect october 6th and i guess

as a consequence of that legislation we may see an increase of some of that permit traffic as well i believe that is probably it everybody e.r. everything else is detailed i'll mention with the soft story tier one deadline for obtaining a permit was the middle of september we had compliance with almost all of those but for 20/20 addresses we are posted by inspection for code enforcement earlier this week but each one that i'll mention one item on the state legislation there is a proposal that has passed state legislation it is your on the governor's desk giving property owners a thirty percent tax

break doing the seismic retrofiting we have not any wards or wood from the governors office if he'll sign but a big incentive to do so i'm available to answer any questions. >> doa know if you've done the retroactively. >> (laughter). >> if i may defer to my compoundable. >> thank you, mr. strong too late. >> item 5 b update on major projects. >> good morning good afternoon, commissioners tom huey director the department of building inspection i see from the major project scroll down the number of projects has front yards but in the stable condition not that much changes

any questions. >> besides i want to take this opportunity some of the commission to come to our department wide meeting on october 14th and then cfo and paty maybe served at what time in october. >> start at 8:30 i would like to you to come early and talk with the staff. >> can you send an e-mail out directed to the commissioners. >> yes. >> thank you director are finished director. >> yes. >> item 5 b update on code enforcement and good afternoon, commissioners danielle inspection services i'm here to report on the clvpt and the dbi monthly i didn't want for august 2015 the building inspection they're

formed 5 thousand 1 hundred and 73 complaints were 3 hundred and 50, complaint response between twenty-four hour or twenty-four hours was 2 hundred plus and 27 complaint received and abated for that notice of violation was 2 hundred and 76 abated complaint for complaints were - refer to the code compliant division the housing inspection performed 9 hundred and 46 complaints were 3 hundred and 69 containments within 23w0urz hours were 36 and notice of violation. >> and number of cases sent to directors week 26 route inspections were 2 leonardo da vinci and 12 code compliant services the number of

cases were 41 and the number of ordered abatements were 12 and under advisements were 11 and code compliant number of cases referred to da were two this is the monthly update and there are gravels in the back depicting the code enforcement. >> it is a case i'm not sure where in your spreadsheet but that is a building that came to my attendance in the neighborhood where i live the address is 471 noah street we don't have to discuss it in detail but get a report what can

that is almost like a permit problem but since i was already gave the deputy director sweeney such a hard time this is an nov problem because what this place was it was the case was open and this is as much computer knowledge on 111313 an nov issued bets department of building inspection for work without a permit or work beyond the scope i guess the owner filed for a permit we closed the nov even though it was scheduleed for the director hearing we don't close take down novs until the final inspection

and check to make sure that was completed i was alerted to it by neighbors and drove by a couple of times no work being down or done a construction wall made of plywood and sitting so along the first couple of times it was late in the afternoon it is possible that construction start early this is good weather and maybe knocked off early i went by this morning before this meeting no work has been done so what the permit i saw on our computer system was he had a permit to do a foundation and is foundation is gone the roof is also gone and the whole place is gutted i can look through the construction partition a

basically, we have four walls sitting on something no foundation, no roof with a foundation permit and there's a posting in front of vertical addition i believe beyond the scope of a vertical addition i only saw this sitting there since the first original building nov came out in 111313 this vacant i didn't know they have registered as a abandoned building this thing has been sitting there for 3 years. >> i'd like to gather the facts and report back. >> and where it sits. >> what will happen in a lot of

cases if someone has a permit and exceeds the scope the job will receive to planning and it takes time. >> the nov is outstanding. >> we'll have still. >> we'll still are an nov clearly the work is not done and it will not disappear. >> that's correct. >> thank you deputy. >> public comment on item 5 director's report. >> 71 noah street. >> commissioners now we need to keep forum will you repeat that someone was talking over you, you director's report items 5 ab. >> this is jerry i think this is a very good report and reflected the activity of the department however, which one reads the report you don't get a sense of what the nov backlog and not a sense of the backlog of items

waiting for directors hearing so you know as you all know we've had a multi year problem within an nov backlog and yet nothing that tells us are we gaining or losing ground thank you. >> duly noted once again. >> are we're going to put a stake in the ground and report the information monthly. >> thank you for your comments. >> if you want it done. >> we do. >> joe butler. >> commissioners public comment we can't have private debates i need to respect the quorum. >> thank you commissioner president mccarthy so if sign in these are input by the department why not put it up front if someone will take the

handwritten sheets and put them into the computer that make sense to put that in is there a backlog for reports for containments i had it on my sheet a backlog report for directors hearings can we see that next month when we see result of the last item that was mentioned so when you go on an online store and buy. >> i think fallaciously boat they've offer you are areas or arrest engine and etch time. >> click imagine our applying for a building permit what's the evaluation and if you're adding a wall it costs this and elevator that so that takes care

of that and the shopper the professional or the homeowner could understand all along the way how to fill out the pink form before we come down now they'll be armed with a pink forearm that was as well typed out as is guy from sears and know in those it is correct it will the cell will will you them to fill out the pink form at department of building inspection has a great resources for checking permits and sxraments and go to other window to look at the planning department who website is far and above what beginning e dbi offers look at more interactive with photos and street views it is really quite nice if he were tied together it would be for everyone's advantage everyone but this project an noah don't

want you, you to understand their permits is outstanding for more than 3 years and there's no work underway and the neighbors are having to live with that plywood box while the owner is off doing something else that is a warehoused building should be on the list but it is not they were accepted if there were a permit outstanding so if you want a warehouse building and doing explorey dry rot there's no enforcement mechanism to prevent you from an applicant can apply on an expired permit and do the work an applicant can demolish a building with a over-the-counter cracked foundation or make explorey selective demolitions to look

for dry rot they approximately found it on noah street if planning were tied together it would not happen. >> thank you, mr. butler. >> is there any additional public comment seeing none, item 6 discussion on a fellow permit and tracking system. >> thanks. >> thank you henry for coming this morning no pressure now. >> (laughter). >> i'll make comments on all the

references to cecelia. >> you can see everything comes back to you. >> (laughter). henry battingly from the project for dbi good morning or good afternoon, commissioners director duffy first of all, i want to introduce this gentleman this is shawn he joined as another project manager in the middle of june has been very structural in helping me out and the project greatly you've not seen him up to new the days are for the meetings were conflicting and didn't make that possible for him to attend >> spell your last name for the record bullying lane. >> thank you shawn. >> and then as far as i know there were previous agenda items

references to p t s and wilson is here if you have more questions from the comments from the commission in the audience i think there is some misinformation and understanding of what is available is if you want clarity we've cover that after this agenda item. >> if you have questions about what it can and cannot do we'll try to address those as well as with the segsz suggestions raised to the matter at hand whether i was last before you we were one day into the ends testing and simulation testing of round one that ran from august 18th through the 25 and out that have simulation was we've got 71 critical and high defects were raised and again, the end end we brought people prosecute every

single division from dbi into the same room at the same time and went through the scenarios that was creating new records in excel through the most complicated site permit to the simplest reroofing and over-the-counter type of permits as well as complaints for housing and code enforcement and also the 3-r process to nerve the ends to end status of critical and highest defects 26 have been fixed and retested the dbi users but this has grown to our list we've already had of severity and critical how's ones have to be fixed as you can see

an is consideration configuration it sets at 26 items this runs and also as weave gone into retest the things that are fixed other items logged and in terms of going through and judging whether something is high or critical we've captured them in the room and assigned the severity. >> meet a few times a week with our business sponsor and rush those items from a business prospective to make sure we're categorized them we don't want to call it a if one or two. >> get on to the list that's how we're handling that in terms of the data migration 63 items to be tested the report status again we've got that

split within the 21 tech developing and dbi that's the status of that report in terms of concerns as we've discuss with the configuration item grown after the e d d rounds and subsequent retest we've got more time to address those items that is of concern thought project and the amount of work to be done we also since i've talked with you we've known when it went live avsh on september 22nd last year at that time, there was an estimates done three weeks needed once dbi was to go live three weeks to analyze and merger get the work done to merge the data before live since

data is active in the system in that timeframe which sfm that discussion was made in september of last year there was the hope that dbi would be a few months dden we know that didn't come live so the length of time the dbi has used the system the changes to their configuration since they've gone live to continue to work with dbi has made the task of analysis of getting the merger done right thing to do so, now the current estimate a week's we need to get a stable playroom for the police radios to begin that's a needed item to going going live and the last points weave talked a

couple of meetings about performances and stability and the general customer service we're ref from excel planning has performance issues and on our tests playrooms have experienced two outages because of the test please state your name and head of the operations team they came obesity and met request dbi they listened which is very good they were accepting and acknowledged the issues we let them know of customer services and support to and made commitments to make improvements on those fronts we've seen small improvements but they set the

right level of people to talk with us and met the commitments we're continuing to monitor. >> affordable housing. >> please continue. >> if you flip for the back of the sheet i know commissioner mccray i asked how do we know if we're getting closer to done with the building and construction type of projects you typically what tell you were you are in the plans and construction how much is left i wish software were as simple but with software the thing that is differently different is that which you change software and go into a particular area of the code it often has impacts i

choose they call the need to do regression you'll have a single thing to change i want to not allow inspectors to be scheduled after 3:00 p.m. so you'll make a change to put that rule in place if you've not been thorough and your testing at the development level then that could cause effects you might have broken someone else that's what they call regression you test the things around it to gain conversation the change i made hadn't disturbed anything that's within the big differences between software development and construction of a building with that said, just to give you a walk through of this chart this starts in july of this year and carries this is updated is as of this morning the height of the

chart shows you the total number of defects and issues this includes the 127 that are configuration or functionality this includes which is the lighter blue bar this is 63 items this is the total from a you know how close to getting done we need to see in the graph this needs to trends down to doyle zero but so that's and - so we we see the inspect it made the jump of the august trying and early september that is e d e that's the subsequent testing and now the developers radio hard at work we're asking cecelia to add more developers to get those things fixed to

retest them and bring that back down so it is difficult to sfra a percentage but i'll continue to publish this chart in a fwraf california where we are to addressing the defects. >> commissioner mar. >> i had kind of a question about that the critical and high defects the first line seems to say this is 45 and the second line hundred and 27. >> i'm glad to explain we had a backlog of defects and added on this that the 71 e d e and sense we've been retesting things as they've been fixed people are testing it is not uncommon to notice something else so those

get added to the log we're very intents on making sure everything this is noticed captured they don't rank as step 1 and 2 but giving confidence to the users we've capture those things and as i said before we review them with tom to make sure we're giving them the right priority. >> this is a followup to that question one - when i was attend this it's been a while since i went to the smaller meetings there was one complaint that came from the which was when they fix something dwoi staff raised something new now all the problems are out there i understand the unintended questions that come out using that example not until you -

>> right. >> you might see something you didn't expect we understand that the regression analysis but most of the stuff on the table most of problems. >> and i'd like to be able to say we have a high degree of confidence and e d e because we went through the major e d e that dbi glosses everyday that gives us confidence we've glutton this a scenario and uncovered the major areas ones those are fixed other things noticed that were not noticed before so we would expect to say this graph t come down and as we're retest to find less and less that's the pattern but hard

to guarantee or judge which we'll hit that point but it will be clear when we're on the right trajectory. >> thank you for this italian-american i'm not surprised because of this going to the ends to end it is kind of the - so. >> the test. >> yeah. it gives us a broader picture in looking at the guy and cpc data merger extension is that going to get longer the longer this process takes or 8 weeks sort of the worse case scenario. >> yeah. i've not asked that question but if it grows it should be very struggling within a day or two not weeks and weeks. >> okay. i think we need to

know that i think that when we made many decision to do that it was assuming a closer - >> yes. >> go live period. >> i think are we learning tlipgz from that that are helpful we can actually feel good about that going forward with that part the planning going live before us are we learning from that. >> we are because they're part of business is so different from dbi i mean that dbi has hundreds of times the volume of transactions in a given daywear not getting a lot of feedback that is immediately tangible to dbi the more the things that we're getting are useful is just you know their cautiously they wished they would have are tested and their invoicing

things since live that is that type of feedback caution caution make sure you do this. >> okay. that's great. >> commissioner all thank you for your patience. >> thank you. i'm on the first page under the configuration fixes there were 71 above critical and high defects were found and 26 were fixed. >> since yeah, since the august 25th we stopped did e d e. >> how long did it take to fix. >> you don't think i don't have the data. >> many they went for the ones that were he'll fixed. >> so if we got hundred and 27 more to go we pickup truck that by 3 days each or 4 days or a

month. >> that's you wouldn't want to give an average i have items that are literally change a lablg on a screen that is 10 or 15 minutes work but another item that is doing configuration of new objects those could take many days you can't really put a number on that and x plat but one good thing not one developer we have at the moment two configurations that are working on fyi those and hoping to add more as they come available. >> thank you just one question i don't- the platform you had glitches or shuts down is that universal to

other cities at the same time or - >> what the plan you are seeing. >> it depends on the nature of the other on this but the gavel to gavel and planning department for that matter are hosted which means those computers are the centers on the west coast and one east coast data center that isolates those two groups but doovn the issues one of the issues during e d e a rotor problem that effected their data center those plants were not - impacted by the rotor it sits in front of the system if none can get through the rotor the firewall nobody it assessing the system or slowing down people

another issue with the e detector e the allergy i s system is hosted by planning please state your name if i can't valid an address not get a permit or create one or not schedule because the inspectors needs that address validation to it will not effect but that is localized for dbi okay thank you henry and shawn for your presentation here today. >> one more thing. >> oh. >> and you're confident you're confident we're getting the support we need from the vendors. >> yes. although we're asking for more we've goes to got two

configuration resources we've asked for quite a number of weeks to add additional resources they have 21 tech starting next week and excel their identifying the resources but the current contract that is going through review needs to go through the final oca approval before the start. >> the last thing. >> may not know this but from planning their problems are they getting solved. >> because they had up and running since i think so there was was issues. >> the small ones they have a few long-standing items my counterparts in planning about tell you they're not happy with

the length of time getting the issues resolved one of them they generate invoices to builds for the planning reviews and there are on a certain threshold they're not able to generate those invoices for over 6 months after going live they've also had a long-standing issue with an ingratiation they've paid for the share point to store lots of documents especially with the planning and making them assessable over the web that piece was positional for only the last couple of months. >> are they able to invoice. >> yes. since a couple of months ago. >> but the hearing on dbi. >> yeah. >> this is a joint i mean. >> ankle as far as dbi and their fees and

ability to collect them that's the a number one besides doing the inspections the calculations to collect those fees is job one. >> okay. >> we're done thank you. >> thank you very much hurp and . >> public comment on item 6. >> hello engineer want to compliment the presenters on the projects it is apparent it being merged professionally that is a rigorous examination of beginning processes and the capabilities identified hundred and 27 fixes that are necessary to go live but i'll suggest strongly that as dr. commissioner mccray was questioning we put hours we

estimate the hours for each fix and measure that against the number of hours and resources available as good as the report is it is incomplete because we have no understanding as to when excel will be implemented thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker >> thank you commissioners joe butler looking forward to both planning and building not only being in the same building but on the same database and having some accountability for permits issued without proper contractors licenses, permits that are issued without proper insurance. >> permits into the weeds planning review but not made it across to the planning department i think those types of favorable

treatments that certain individuals consistently receive receive are will have to go away which accountability in this system that the way 67 is now hundred and 27 and 240 by the end of the year but persevere it is important for all the city to provide for all it's customers we pay our salaries we're your customers thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> no is there any additional public comment and item 7 approve the minutes. >> march 16. >> second and throwback is there any public comment on the minutes. >> okay. seeing none all

commissioners in favor. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> >> opposed minutes are approved pursue item 8 commissioners matters at this time the commissioners may ask the staff about documents and which are of interest to the commission. >> so my apologies commissioner walker >> to the public comment that came in regarding commissioner vietor that will be helpful if we could get an update on the backlogs i know we had that in the beginning you're doing a good job at chipping away how many backlogs and novs and how many backlog directors hearing so we know what we are dealing with thank you. >> okay item 8 b future meeting and agenda at this time the

commissioners can determine did items to be plaid on the next agenda our next meg a october 21st commissioner mar please. i know this is not total honest but i want to reraises the question of explorey whether we're going another joint meeting about planning this is partially to discuss cecelia perhaps the decisions they've gone live and get the february on that. >> as well as other agenda items which might have to do with permits what's a simultaneously and over-the-counter and appropriate 0 those are my things i know that is in their court which usually is but commissioner president mccarthy and might have can have outreach to them

again. >> duly noted. >> thank you. any any public comment on item items 8 ab item 9 adjournment have a motion to adjourn. >> so moved. >> second. >> there is a motion and a second all commissioners in favor we're noting now adjourned 2:25 p.m. >> thank you, madam clerk. >> thank

>> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuinthem.

there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative. the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related to the african-american experience, here in the united states.

i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity. it is the shape of a house. in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an

interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell. people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing] i think both of us really

believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others. we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame it for a conversation.