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tv   Ethics Commission 32816  SFGTV  March 30, 2016 1:30am-6:01am PDT

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a dinner party. i can match that person with that person. it is really fun for me. it is nerve wracking during the actual readings. i hope everyone is good. i hope the audience likes them. i hope everybody shows up. but everything works out. at the end of the reading, everyone is happy. ♪ >> good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the regular meeting march 28, 2016 of the san francisco ethics commission. commissioner andrews, here. commissioner hayon, here. commissioner keane, here. we have a visitor. commissioner
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hur. let me say we welcome you back and particularly in the view the fact we'll cover the wistal blow rr regulations we passed at the last meeting and i see you didn't bring your plaque that you stethly took away in february. >> it wasn't given to me but it is reviding in my office. >> welcome. i will ask for public comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda and believe madam assesser is here to make a few words >> thank you. good afternoon commissioners. executive director pelm. we were in the crowd wondering about commissioner hurs name
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tag. glad to hear you have one. today i want to come here because today is commissioner hurs last day with the ethics commission and would prefer to find a way to extend his term but i want to express my gratitude and present you with a certificate of honor on the ethics commission. the mission of the ethics commission is promote the highest level of ethics in government and know how fundamental it is so the people of the city have the trust and faith in government we all kneis so importantism there is a very fast 6 years, not sure if you feel the same way. i believe you have been able to serve in this role with great distinction. [inaudible] insureing not
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only fair processes and also transparence and effective processes. he is a complete role model for dialogue and thoughtful leadership. ben stayed true to the principles and integrity and his leadership shined rchlt i'merallyy happy to be able to say thank you to commissioner hur in particular as the appointee even though i wasn't the one who appointed you. i hope will be able to serve and have an appointment to the commission who is able to serve as ablely as you have. thank you for your service and if i could present this to commissioner hur. it is a certificate of honor on behalf the sitee and county of san francisco and our office. we extend our higher accommodation and gratitude for your service on the san francisco ethics commission. we want to say and note the capacity you have served
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with distinction, unwaurfbing commitment to insure fair processing and thoughtful leadership guiding on enforcement relulation and policy . we are in your debt and offer our deepest appreciation. thank you commissioner hur. >> thank you very much. >> thank you you very much for those remarks and look forward to commissioner hurs-we look forward to the new appointment commissioner, that you will be appointing. i'm sure that he or she will be equally outstanding. he or she will have a tough road to follow. thank you again. any other public comment?
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>> patrick [inaudible] shah. i want repeat thanking commissioner hur for his [inaudible] the ethics commission vote to mr. [inaudible] behavior had not risen to the definition of official misconduct. as i noted previously a once anonymous analysis at the [inaudible] i'm submitting for inclusion in the minutes turned out to have been authored by san francisco private practice [inaudible] it was distributed to the full board of sups. [inaudible] didn't meet the definition of official misconduct. thankfully along with commissioner hur, supervisors campos and kim reached the
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same correct conclusion. it is a pity other commissioners including mrs. hayon didn't understand the significance of [inaudible] legal analysis in the face of the mayors bold attempt to strip city employees of protection against faults official misconduct allegations. since larry bush is unable to attend i want to repeat [inaudible] distribution to the commission. first, i agree with bushes recommendation that this commission return to issuing its own annual report. second, i also agree with bushes suggestion calling for annual wistal blower protection training for all. let me repeat, all city employees, not just city
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supervisor and man injuryial employees and not just a handful of city employees required to complete form 700. required to take annual sunshine ordinance training and biannual ethics training. i recall as a city employee i as a secretary was required to take annual sexual harassment prevention training which included having to sign under oath i completed the training. adding antiretaliation wistal blower training for all city employees is a logical next step. mrs. bush calls for [inaudible] managerial employees retaliated against city employees, i believe that recommendation should be expand today include mandatory unpaid suspension for 30 days as a
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deturant for retaliation. that may be the quick est route to curtailing retaliation against employees. >> thank you. members of the ethics commission, [inaudible] in november 2014 following advice posted on the ethics commission website i contacted ethics investigator garered chatfield. after he was unable to dissuade me from filing he suggested a meeting the following the week. at that meeting [inaudible] tried for a hour to dissuade me from filing a complaint, any complaints. they did promise to look into it and get back to me. in january i contacted the new executive director leon pel umwho insured me i must have misunderstood the ethics commission investigator and
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said she will look into and get back to me. we are 4 and half months later and no response from anyone in those conversations including and especially the ecextev director. i believe have grounds to question whether any investigation is partial, starting where your next meeting i'll file complaints directly with theectics commission in full view of the public, try to hide those complaints. when you go to the people who are supposed investigate complaints and before they look at anything they tell you there is no basing for sth complaint and don't understand why you want to file a complaint. it agregious and unacceptable and immoral and it is certainly unethical. to have the executive director commit to me trice to look into the matter and fail to do
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anything at all shows me she is just another continuation of john st. croix. the john st. croix who could decide yourhering while you were outf the state or no sunshine ordinance referral would be held because she didn't like the way they did things. you spent years go around and around by it sunshine ordinance and haven't enforced but one time and that was against jewel gomez and recommended the mayor she be removed and the mayor ignoreed you just like everybody else. a year later we embarrassed sending a later to the mayor and saying what is your response to the recommendation and didn't bother responding. you are not worth his attention. in fact, i'm willing to bet mayor lee holds you all in
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contempt. he 12349 go isn't going it do anything you recommend. as far as mr. hur, i'm glad you're gone because i can't think of one thing in your term you have done that made the city more ethical for its citizens. >> any other public comment? >> david [inaudible] speaking as a individual as i commented add the jnl meeting i want appreciate commissioner hur and join in the comments of carmen chew and thank for all his time. unfortunately we have term limits but think thank you for the work on the commission. >> any others? seeing none i return to item 3 on the agenda, which is the annual election of officers and
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discussion and possible action. to elect a chair and vice chair for the coming year. commissioner keane. >> mr. chair, i-we nominate you to surfb a second year as chair the committee. >> is there a second? >> any discussion? >> yeah, excuse me for jumping in. deputy attorney [inaudible] a chair can't serve more than one year. >> two consecutive years >> you have been violating it many years then. >> that's not correct, it is two consecutive years >> my apology >> any discussion? any public
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comment? >> david fillpeal speaking as a individual, i have no objection to president renne continues for another year i just want to ask publicly since there a new appointee to replace commissioner hur whether you want to continue for a month so the new commissioner can have a opportunity to participate but otherwise i don't think there is a problem tonight. >> any other comments? >> my only comment is i think it would be great to have the continuity of you as chair. i think there is a transitional period with our new executive director and the other issues we are dealing with, so i-i think you have done a great job and would like you to continue if you are willing to do it. >> thank you. >> patrick mu net shah. with
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all due respect chair renne and due respect to commissioner hur who i will also not be sorry to see leave, if you have been violating your own bylaws as commissioner hur claims, it is time for fresh blood and so i would urge commissioner andrews to nominate commissioner keane who is displayed it during his term on this commission some the soundest legal reasoning and ethical reasoning i have heard on this commission in the 20 years i have lived in san francisco. time for some fresh blood, commissioner. >> thank you. >> commissioners [inaudible] san francisco open government.
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this is relate today the election so don't try to tell me you are not talking about the item. during the jan 25, 2016 meeting regarding the [inaudible] mark farrell chair fenny displayed how far he will go to hide from the publics the machination from the commission. first your own members had no idea why it was own the ajnda. placing something on thugenda with attachments but not saying what the hell it is on there for leaves the public at a disadvantage. now the public has no idea why it was on the agenda or what commissioner renne was authorized to do. commissioner hayon doesn't seem to understand much of what goes on here during ethics commission meet ings and contributes little or nothing meaningful to discussions. that leaves two suitable candidates,
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andrews and peter keane. with these members i believe there is at least a possibility that the will the citizens of san francisco for ethical government will stand any chance. give ethical government a chance. i have watched you for years now and you are the most sorry bunch of people with exception to mb sellven and keane. mr. keane tried to stand up for something you were doing is hide from the public your backroom deal and whatever meckination you will pull regarding supervisor farrell. supervisor hayon and hur, sure visor hur especially went along with it because it is their position on the ethics commission to withhold as much as they can from the public. again, i ask those members what have you done on the ethics commission you
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can name that made any difference in the ethical atmosphere in the town? we have a mayor raising money illegally and a state senator going to prison. the citizens of san francisco are tired of all the different things like going on like [inaudible] gate and whatever and they disappear into the nether world and never hear of them again and think that is what will happen and the matter related to supervisor farrell. you will make a back room deal with him, he will do the deal and somehow it will disappear into the nether world. at least supervisor keane and with some support from supervisor sullivan made a attempt to take the piece of grbage ouf the agenda. you can attach knck you want to the agenda including
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the san francisco telephone book, it doesn't mean the item meaningful and when your own members have to come in and start out arguing for 25 minutes about whether you should have it on thugenda i think it is pretty clear the public was disserved. now, as far as commissioner keane remaining or commissioner renne remaining as the president, i don't giver a damn if there is one or two terms he doesn't deserve it. what have you done commissioner to do anything to make the city government more answerable to the people? to make elections fair? you nibal around the edges and go after people who can't defend it themselves and think you do it personally based on your personal animosity and the orders you have from the people who appoint you. [inaudible] renne should have
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never been before the body and should be removed on a recall not on a jury rigged policy and you and you and you were at the center of that. >> thank you. any other public comment? any discussion? >> i would like to echo commissioner hayon about the leadership of you. you and commissioner an drews and the selection from the executive director and all the work you did on prop c meeting with the public and serving as our representative, it was a lot of extra work and appreciate it. >> thank you. i call the question. all in favor? >> aye. >> opposed? one obtain and 4 approve. the second item on-
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>> actually you can't obstain. >> i have a conflict of interest but i'll vote if that makes you happier. >> i'm happier >> item 3 is the election of the vice chair. do i hear a nomination? commissioner keane? >> yes, i also like to renominate commissioner andrews as vice chair to the commission. >> i hear a second? >> second. >> any discussion? any public comment? >> patrick mu net shah. on the way into this chamber i spoke with commissioner andrews and he said between his work on the ethics commission as a commissioner his work on the non profit he is too busy for, so if that is the case, and if
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he were being honest about matters, i think he should thank commissioner keane for the generous nomination and indicate that he isn't interested in the position because he is too busy and futhermore, i think commissioner andrews should nominate commissioner keane, who has displayed the most ethical behavior on the body. >> [inaudible] san francisco open government. while i do support the appointment or election of commissioner andrews as the vice chair, i really do believe it would have been better had he been the chair. i will do something now that i did at a library
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commission meeting which got me into trouble and made the newspaper. i talked about ainksant room where they appoint someone for life because the library commission appointed the same two people year after year and i said well, maybe it will be like the roman republic where we have a chance of an asassination to make a change. he is threatening and doing this! the president the library commission, jewel gomez and these are her words not mine. i know 12-people who would bury him. that is the attitude toward public comment. if you don't like what somebody has to say you threaten them and you fight them. i have 7 orders of determination gaest the library and commission for withholding
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public records part of which was to keep [inaudible] and found to file false perjureed statements and the group of the san francisco public library who spends 6 million or more dollars a year money raised in the name of the city of san francisco and not one body or individual in this city government can tell anybody where that money went. that was the hearing we had that i was out of state and decided to do it cleverly and announce it before i left and hold it before i got back. you are too much of a cowered-set of cowereds to bring it back and hold a honest hearing. we need new leadership and we need to get rid the two people i think are the worst. we have already gotten rid of one, mr. hur. commissioner hayon did nothing but stand up
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and say i was on the library commission and if the friends did it it must be okay which is totally prejudicial to my position. and commissioner keane, i really can't see what you do that serves any purpose at all. >> sorry commissioner keane. commissioner keane has shown some balls if you exkoos the expression. he questioned a item on the agenda last time and the rest of you with the exception of commissioner andrews went along and did what you always do which is go in the back and hide from the public. >> thank you. any other comments? >> sorry, taking a moment. david [inaudible] speaking as a individual and want to support the nomination of commissioner andrews for vice chair since it appears you having the
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nomination tonight. >> any commissioners have any comments before we vote? alright, i'll call the question. all in favor? >> aye. >> opposed? >> commissioner andrews will remain vice chair for another year and we'll turn to item 4 which is discussion and possible action on a proposed stipulation, decision and order regarding ethics complaint number 19-131115 luinate sweet >> i'm garret [inaudible] one the investigators on staff. >> can i interrupt you-is mrs. sweet here tonight? >> no, i don't believe she is.
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she was notified? >> she isn't required tobe here and she isn't here. so this matter for your consideration for approval the stipulation. this matter was initiated as a audit for mrs. sweet campaigns committee 2010 where she ran for district 3 supervisor and she was publicly funded. sorry, district 10. mrs. sweet committee received public funds so she was subject to a matte mandatory audit which covered the period from january 1- january 31, 2010. mrs. sweet was notified of the audit which she was as
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advised to require documents. she required documentation however there were dauments not provided. throughout the course the audit the staff try today obtain the [inaudible] because she stopped responding to them audit staff went forward without the documentation they requested. the final report was issued july 17 making [inaudible] material findings form the basis of the stipulation. this matter has a probable cause hearing january 26, 2015 where the 10 counts were presented and the commission made the funding there was probable cause to believe the violations occurred and staff issued the acquisition on february 5. after the acquisition was issued mrs. sweet contacted enforcement staff to deal with the matter
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where she provided additional documentation to staff when evidenced the other outstanding expenses however didn't do all of them. staff proposed as a penalty in thet mayor that generally on line with recent stipulation of the recent violation but higher because she was uncooperative with audit and only engaged with the commission once acquisition was issued. so, i would request respeektfully you approve the stipulation as presented and happy to answer any questions about it for you. >> am i correct in understanding that she was publicly funded? >> correct, she was a publicly funded candidate >> the audit was mandatory because she afs candidate receiving public
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finance? >> that is correct >> in any of the other cases you say the recommended punishment in this case is in line with the other ones. were they also dealing with public funds? >> yes, so in i think-one second. the example of complaint 2410, 1021 that candidate was publicly funded and had the same violation where she didn't turn in records and the commission for that violation was a $2500 fine >> to the extent you have records was it a indication they were improperly spent? >> the indication was the expenditures were okay. they were what they
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should be. the issue is that originally there was a large chunk that was missing and once the enforcement matter or once mrs. sweet engaged with enforcement she did find additional records that this deal is outstanding reported expenses. there is some still unsupported, however, from what audits saw originally and what the enforcement staff saw after engaging with us, the records do support the right type of spending. >> how much is left unaccounted for? >> about $20,000. the make up as reported is 13,000 as salary payments and the remainder is various expenses, literature z office expenses, things
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like that. >> do i hear a motion? move to approval of the recommendation that we approve it. i hear a second? >> second. >> public comment? >> david [inaudible] speaking as a individual. several comments on this item. um, the report here and i would suggest in the future doesn't include the cam pine id number or the treasurers name, that would be helpful. actually i take that back, page 3 includes the [inaudible] number but the treshier isn't named in here and think the id number should be part the caption on the matter. the audit report referenced wants included so there was discussion of the fact this
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is a publicly financed candidate but the amount of financing providing wasn't included and think that should be a consideration for the penalty amount. as you just discussed, the report indicates there is 20,000 plus in expendsures and 5 thousand in contributions that is still unaccounted for. it seems to me this is a good or bad example of record keeping and record keeping is kind of a corner stone requirement of campaign finance whether it publicly financed candidate or not. as i said, in the future i would include that information including the audit report that forms the basis of the recommendation squz in summary, i think the 9250 is low and encourage you to consider rejecting this amount and seek a higher
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amount and finally, the staff report has proposed stipulation but it is not signed and dated by the eare sponded so it isn't clear if the responded agreed to this amount. normally when there is stip the stip includes a signature by the responded so it isn't clear if the responded agreed to this amount as a proposed settlement. >> before you-you want to respond to that? >> just briefly. mr. [inaudible] stated that the amount of public funds she received waernt in the stipulation and that isn't correct. it is the third paragraph. she was the 57, $439 in public funds. the stipulation attached is proposed so mrs. sweet agreed to it and there is a
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signed copy should the commission approve it, however i wasn't about to presume this would be approved so if this was rejected we would redraft a new one if that is what we were druckted directed to do. >> thank you. >> commissioners rea heart, [inaudible] san francisco open government. i'm a private citizen and don't pretend to take credit for serving on a committee like you do but i also don't have responsibility to do the job you are supposed to do and i think the very start of this with commissioner keane, commissioner renne admitting he doesn't know if there were public funds. he will vote and approve a recommendation where he doesn't know what the recommendation says. sounds like he didn't bother to read it. i have asked whether this agreement is a joke. according to your own numbers lunet sweet can't account for 45
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percent the contributions and public funds received by hercome pain. that is based on what i received from your staff in the mail and now we find we found another $25,000 which seems ludicrous you send out information to the public that is incorrect and put it on your agenda which is increblth and vote on it. if the ethics commission was asleep at the switch and failed to [inaudible] or she tafailed to follow the law and you didabout do squat about it. this would be something akin to my robbing a bank for $62,000 and when caught asked to return 9, 250 and keeping the rest. she still has a outstanding $20,000 balance and you ask her to pay 9250 which means she made a net profit. i believe the public has a right
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to know the rational for the exectesk directors recommendations. public money was accepted and expended for the purpose of the politicalcome pain. 45 percent or 25 percent, whatever figure you choose to use because you are flexible in the number, how that money want spent will never be known to the public. why should the public believe this finding is being-this fine is being paid for with the very money that disappeared? i keep 20 thousand dollars of public money, put it in the bank and stick it under my mat rass and when you find the half i go under the mattress and pay you back your money and then laugh about what fools you are. this agreement is in fact a joke and if you approve it today you are a joke. this person by your own
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admission, your own investigators facts still has unaccounted for twice what you make the fine. that was like whenueese hurara took 5 thousand a year from friends the public library and fined 200 dollars for lying on a statement of economic interest under penalty of perjury. >> thank you. >> chair renne, i thought about keeping my yaper shut on this item but have to concur with ray hart. you asked the taxpayer tooz foot public financing and then as ray mention td you let lunet stick the money under the mattress and pull out half to pay a fine. i'm turning to one of you with a
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ethical backbone. introduce a motion to table this and send mr. chatfield back to the investigative drawing board and finish that audit. why should we do public financing? and finding the -fining the candidate office for less than what they snatched out of the taxpayer coffers? i agree with mr. hart that if you pass this thing without tabling it for further investigation, you will be making a mockery out of your own body. >> good evening commissioners. charley [inaudible] with foe, friends
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of ethics. we did pledge to the public back in 2000 with prop o that we would have concurrent and proactive auditing of public financing so we don't find ourselves in a position still deal wg a matter that should have been expedited. i understand why there is delay but hope in the future we will be tighter on the timeline. i did want to say i understand why some the questions are raised the way they are because we are educating the public who is watching on television and all they see is the header on the screen that described what the action is, but no details, so the fact is yes, public financing is involved and i think it would be important for you to explain to
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the public if in fact there is missing funds that would raise questions as to whether or not there is a liability and whether the da or the city attorney as they have the right to do with the stipulation plan to proceed with any action or at least are considering doing so to recover any missing funds if it turns out there is a net balance due shortage in the public financing account. that should be explained i think as best as you can orally make that report now on television. i think there is simple explanation that could be explained and clarify confusion on the part of the public. i do think the fine is a little on the low side. i do think that normally fines should be used as a shield and not a
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sword. in public financing there is a margin i think or a appreciation that should be given. if there is something that is not making the reports in a concurrent and timely way, so in any event, i would just say at this point given the ability to collect might be a factor. the fact is the party will have to make a effort to make these good on these fines and hopefully that will happen and this will be wrapped up and we can look at any other shortages in the actual public financing accounts in this case, but i do recommend that you raise that and clarify it on television tonight. >> any other public comment? before we vote on it, let me say yashare when i read this the concern that some of the
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public expressed. when you deal with pup public money and a candidate can't account for how they spent the money, it would seem that at a minimum the penalty should have to be to pay whatever is missing. now, that may not be doable for a number of reasons. it just-i start from that assumption that if you take public money you got to account for it, that is what our ordinances say and let me ask this question-in our procedures when someone takes public money they have to file monthly reports? what do they have to file with the commission saying how they dispersed the money? >> they file the campaign statement reports on the schedule that the state mandates. when they apply for
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public funds there is a more scuteinous process about whether it contributions can be matched and those are vetted at that point but the expenditures come through just as every other campaign files the 460. >> i don't if it is legal but is it possible to set up a system where those candidates taking public financing have to report on a more frequent basis expenditures so we don't up at the end of the campaign they don't have the information that we need? because some of the candidates may be inexperienced and may not have experienced treasurers and they don't find out that they haven't complied until long after the fact. is there some way that we don't get to the end
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and find out they failed to comply? >> that is a good policy issue you raise and not one i think i can necessarily answer, but i don't -[inaudible] city attorney but you can impose additional filing requirements. i don't see why we couldn't. i do want to address quickly that that is true there is the money unaccounted for we base this off the prior stipulation that the commission approved rel tivly recently which had money unaccounted for that they never turned documents over and that was a $2500 fine so if you have the [inaudible] we'll go back and talk to the responded about that. we pushed it up higher because of her unresponsiveness. >> i share chair renne concern
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and throughout the whole case i have been concerned about the amount that is unaccounted for and for the reason you raise, this is setting a president for the next time and concerned if we don't have a system where we are at least demanding what is unaccounted for that we create a precedent for future individuals will point to previous decisions and claim that approximately half of what is unaccounted for is the appropriate penalty. i'm concerned about that as well. >> did mrs. sweet talk anything about any financial hardship she is having? i want to figure out the rational we apply to this up front. i think $2500 in the first 60 days and another level payments of 600-i can't remember.
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>> there was discussion about that and her ability to pay and that is why the payment plan was considered into the agreement. i think that is probably the extent i could say at the moment. >> it was a part of the consideration though? >> as far as the payment plan goes. >> what is the-i have to reread it, but if she fails to make payments as agreed to, what is-is there a provision she is libel for the full amount? if you can go back to square one so to
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speak to collect- >> if she fails to make a payment or misses a dollar we can reopen the matter and have the hearing and litigate at a hearing. >> including the amount of the fine? >> the entire matter will be reopened. >> based upon your discussions and investigation the ability to pay is-was a consideration? >> the ability to pay was a consideration in how she was going to pay. we didn't- >> it didn't factor into total dollar amount that you thought the fine should be? >> i mean, we looked at the
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past stipulations that fts primarily what we looked at and they were around this dollar figure including the fact that they didn't have a return in the documents to show what they had spent on. again, if you believe the- 3500 is the one dedicated to the failure to disclose records or keep the records. you have the ability to send me back and renegotiate this with her if you feel that is too low. >> so, there are no records what so ever? >> she has no provided them. >> so we dont know whether there are records or not? >> she is unable to account for the remaining 20 some thousand dollars. >> what is the maximum that could have
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been imposed under all these counts? >> 5 thousand$5 thousand per violation so 50 thousand dollars could be imposed. or 3 times the amount spent. >> do we know what her financial situation is? i know that is asked, but is there any realty to our being able to collect any of this whether it be the $9250 or whether it be the $40,000 plus that is unaccounted for? >> she is unemployed and
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believe this amount is doable on the payment plan we set up. that is extent i know about her financial situation. not sure what to say about that >> she hasn't offered a reason why she hasn't provided the documentation of the money that is missing? >> she has provided a reason -without getting too far into details there is a issue with her treshier i believe the treshier didn't keep the record properly or maintained them in the way they were supposed to, however, as the candidate she is the responsible party. the treshier is also responsible but look that candidate in these matters. so, there was a legal issue with her treshier that created difficulty for
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her. >> so you are satisfied there is no ilintent on her part in regards to the records not provided to us? >> i tell you when the audit was issued and had the 45 percent the expenses still outstanding and finally contacted usand provided documentation for another $40,000 of spending that was accounted for. i won't speculate with the remaining 20 but everything else she provided supported what she supported and they were legitimate campaign expenses >> was there any indication you
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saw in your investigation she may have been pocketing money to herself? other than campaign? >> there were a couple attachments tote aelg maybe $100. that was the extent that didn't have a receipt or equateed back to a legitimate expense of the 20 thousand remaining 13 thousand is reported salary to various campaign volunteers so that is a area of question. when you report salary without showing me a time sheet or something to support that. >> and you didn't check the individual who she said she paid the money to see if they got the money? >> that wasn't done at this point. because this had already been
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determined probable cause based on what we have and can't add new things on it after a acquisition is issued. she contacted us and wanted resolve this. we believed we would bring forward the settlement to you. of course you are at liberty to keep it open and direct me to do what you feel is appropriate at this point. >> call the question. all in favor? >> aye. >> opposed? >> no. >> 3 to 2 opposed. >> turning to item 5, discussion and possible action to select audit
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of campaign committees and lobbyists. proceed. >> thanks. >> good evening. this is the item in your materials that provides you with the opportunity to randomly select campaigns that will be part the upcoming audit. these are for candidates and committees active in 2015 and subject to random audits. it is a opportunity to select lobbyist that will be subject to random audit subject to city law that requires random audits of lobbyist. we have a process, we have eric willet from audit staff and by quick background about the selection process. as you may recall, all publicly financed candidates have a mandatory audit so they will be
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audited at whatever level of campaignic tavety because they received public financing. the process tonight is randomly select other campaign audits for candidates controlled committees for committees that did not receive public finances, ballot measure committees and [inaudible] more than one election. so, we have again committees active in 2015, lobbyist audits effective july 2014, requires the commission to conduct one or more audits lobbyist. the first group the commission had selected back in march 2015 and we selected 4 lobbyist audits last year. based on the guidelines you established
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back in 2008 the commission established in 20 o8, we propose to audit more committees and lobbyist for higher levels. we have a audit pool segregated inoo variety of levels. spending my campaign committees above $20 o8, we propose to audit more committees and lobbyist for higher levels. we have a audit pool segregated inoo variety of levels. spending my campaign committees above a ton thousand thresh hold represented nearly all campaign money reported. 99.7 percent. spending by campaigns committees with activity of 10,000 or less represented.3 percent of all spending. spending by lobbyist is above the 10,000 threshold with $10 thousand or 10 contacts that is the bulk of expenditures reported in 2015 and below the 10,000$10,000 threshhold represented.4 percent of spending. the
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focus is trying to capture audits putting in the randle audit pool of those engaged in the greatest level of spending activity in citycome painsism we propose we select randomly 20 percent of the committees from a total of 53 committees that were active last year. this is 11 total committees that we propose to audit. 6 is from above $100,000. 3 would be in the midtier between 50 and 100,000 and fwo 2 is 10 thousand to 50 thousand. as we lobbyist audits we propose to select 4 lobbyist which equakes to 10 percent of those active in the last year for a total of 40 lobbyist. this follows a similar pattern of a category based on money and contact supportive but the
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focus is try to capture proportionality with largest expenditures selected with a higher percentage chance of beingrendomly selected and in terms of the campaign activity i would note our proposal is well . once the committees are selected we would propose that are going to audit first those candidates based on their level of responding. in the past we have done audits of committees for candidates who were not successful in the elections and think it makes more sense probably a better use of resources to do audits where the public interest is greatest in terms of money raised and spent so we propose to audit first those candidates based on the level of expenditures reported. there is a lot of data but want to give a opening sense of what our thinking is
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how it reflects policy discussions you had in the past and happy to answer questions. eric is here to answer questions as well and if there are questions we can take those or proceed to a random selection with erics help. >> commissioner hur >> i appreciate the effort to prioritize because i know we have limited resource squz want to use them effectively as possible. one concern i have-a couple concerns. one, when it comes to those that are spending 10 thousand or less it is perfectly understanding with.3 percent of the totem spending why you wouldn't audit any. i worry about the message that sends. we are saying if you spend 10 thousand of less you have zero risk if you misspent the funds and not sure that is the message we want to send. even if it is a rel tivly token
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percentage at least it sends a message there is some risk that fraudulent reporting would be caught and fined by the commission. my other concern, when it comes to the audit i think a lot of that depends on how quickly you can get through them. one thing i'm concerned is let's make sure we do them faster and if people don't comply we should hold it against them and not wait for them to give marials. if you tell me it is lot faster than the past then what you suggested makes sense. if it is about the same speed than we run the risk where candidates who lose don't have a vested interest complying and may be long gone by the time row get to them. part of what you want to do is dependent on how quickly you get through it. >> i completely agree with the concern
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with the timeliness to get thou audits. it serves aenchds interest to make sure the audit is thorough, accurate and timely and have rooms we can make improvements. based on my conversation with the auditors there are no guarantees but we are work to provide the autd audits completed within 18 months of the start date which is ahead of the timeframe of the past. one thing that will make the audits folk is say auditors have one hat and have to adjust our resources accordingly. i think one question that i would like to explore with the staff as we finish up the current round of audit squz how to stream line the process kwr bring to you recommendations for what level and changes we want to make in the audit program overall. it may be worth
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taking a look at the policy discussion uzfrom 2008 to see if the commission is will toog codify it in a regulation and how to approach the audits going forward. >> based on the timeline that you are recommending or hoping for, when do you think the last of these 11 audit would be completed if they started today? >> by-one moment. probably by september of 2017. >> all 11 would be done? that's pretty good. >> we provide time for the committees foogive their records so assuming we have a selected list tomorrow who we know will be audited the staff send out letters and provide the record and scheduling them out and asking
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for the documentation. there is the back and forth sometimes with the committees if they are not able to give the record timely how that extends but that is one of the tools and processes we need to refine on ourened to help insure committees if you are scheduled for a audit at this point we need to try and keep everybody to that schedule. that may come with further thinking how we set up parameters of a audit that are very transparent and predictable or it hast been dusted off. if and are a committee that doesn't provide records what do we do? do we put you to the back of the line and keep moving so we can keep going through the audits? i think there is a variety of methods but it is september of next year assuming all goes well. >> that is for all of them. you are not saying each audit will take 18 months you say you will be
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through all 11 of them? >> yes, thank you for the clarification. >> comment by the commissioners? any public comment? >> charley [inaudible] i really had just a question. i know you do a facial audit when the forms are filed and i assume that is to make sure that the filing is correct and complete or complete. you are not really looking at correctness. there may be some systems for auditing that maybe fall short of a full audit. for instance, the sweet committee had in fact more than a few 40 and 60 dollar atm
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withdrawals which raised my eyes -eye brows as to what was going on with that committee. there may be some things for smaller committees too that you can do that fall short of a full audit, but would give you enough of a indication as to whether everything looks like the treshier knows what they are doing and are doing a comp tent job. because i suspect early in the process you might see things that raise eye brows and that is what i'm thinking. there may be a mechanism in audits that fall far short of a full blown facial audit that takes 18 months to complete the process for the batch of people selected in the lottery. so, you might ask schista who did a good job
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on the audit of the sweet committee from what i could see, from whatever data she put together. the process does need to be sped up and it does particularly for public financing need to be robust, concurrent and proactive and those are the essential words when fendmentally public dollars are being used. thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioners ray [inaudible] given the subject is audit squz heard in the previous items the audits are [inaudible] to begin with, the simple question of she said she paid 13 dollar did you ask the person if they got the 13 thousand and said no? what type of audit is that? any professional stand
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rds the person would get their credentials removed and probably lose their job if not go to jail. i will make a prediction, i think when we get done with the selection process for audits a small percent objectf the 26 million, we'll be under audit. the large campaign committees will receive all most no scrutiny. i don't ed lee will be audited. neither will most or perhaps any groups that set up to confuse and deceive the public regarding the current housing crisis. there were millions and millions of dollars spent that achieved no purpose dut deceive the voting public but what these items were for. this ethics commission is confusing activity with accomplishment. the only reason we now know the persons connected to ed lees reelection engaged in ellegal
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activities is due to federal investigation. i will request public records relate today the last audit to determine if they serve a legitimate purpose or scams designed to fool the publics and let wrong doers of the hook. you look at your meetings and nobody bothers to come i think because nobody believes this committee does anything to improve things in the city. i come here because i like to watch mr. hur laugh with his smirk about the fact you challenge stuff and he cannot and will not disagree with and that is another reason why i'm glad he will be gone. but the bottom line is these audits are a joke. edpz slee for mayor 2015 if that comes out of the
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hat give me the piece of paper and i'll eat it. we know from a federal investigation that at least 3 of the staff sulistted contributions illegally. falsifying records to make it seem like it wasn't. and yet here we have the pitally audit squz act like that is seriously going to deter anybody from wrong doing. that is because the people you need to deter are the people who appoint you and you don't want to mess with them. >> thank you. >> david [inaudible] speaking at a individual. several comments. i appreciate that staff spent a lot of time working through this audit proposal and statifying the committees and attempting to include progressively increasing selection
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percentages so that the public interest is better served by greater scrutiny for those committees and lobbyists with additional funds and activity. never the less, couple of point here. the list that are attached at attachment 1 and 2 in some cases appear to be curtailed or have their capital lower case changed and so i would appreciate in future lists if they could include the complete name as reported. that would help. also, the suggestion that your director made that the order of audits proceed from those with the greatest activity to least, i disagree and say the best practice of
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auditing those candidatecome pains with unsuccessful candidates first is best because those unsuccessful candidates often leave town or move on with their lives and want to terminate their campaign deal with any audit or record keeping issues and just close that activity and so chances are they want to finish that work first and those candidates who are elected if the mayor, the district attorney, the city attorney, the sheriff are selected they are already in office and unlikely to disappear and the records are likely still around so i would just suggest prioritizing those losing candidates if any of them are selected along with ballot measures that have terminated orneed to terminate opposed to those in office or ongoing general purpose committees. and just fine
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finally, there is no indication in the report from the last round of audits, the executive director report talks about that but the previous round that is complete i think there should be a paragraph that indicates how many audit said were done, the average length of time and whether they were material findings. to me understanding how many material findings come out of the audit process gets to the issue of invesment of resources for audits so if we are yielding material findings that result in investigations and what not, then this is good work. if we are judging people compliance there may be other ways to approach it. thank you very much. >> to mr. [inaudible] point. would it be possible to start all the audits at
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the same time? i know traditionally you started some and finished and then moved to others, but especially if you have a situation where part the problem is waiting for the candidates to get back to you, why not start them all at the same time and if it takes longer to finish them all, a little longer to finish them off because of that maybe that is a worty price to pay so when there are stalls in one audit you have plenty of others to work on and finish. >> my experience tells me it is very difficult for auditors to juggle 3 different audits at the same time due to the level of depth and make sure wecopy track of the documents. my sense though is i think the idea of taking the large est committees and also starting some of the smallest are probably more manageable. i think we have 4 auditors, having 3 audits for each at the outset is practical
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but looking how to include the smallest committees and taking a bite at both ends of the process would be a way to approach it that is more manageable to in practice so we can take a look at that and see if we can get that process started? >> and defer to the expertise on auditors. lawyers get deep into many different ones. refer to your judgment. >> you want to go on with the selection? >> let me turn it over to eric and think we'll look for volunteers from the members of the public. >> i would like to volunteer mr. hart. >> we wouldn't want the papers to be consumed. >> i wouldn't want to be part of your nasty [inaudible]
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>> i just thought you might want to put your money where your mouth is in regards to being part of the volunteer aspect of it and picking them out and seeing what we come out with. just a suggestion. >> how do i know it isn't rigged? >> you can be the one reading them off. >> i don't whether they are all in there. >> commissioners, if i might i would like to note [inaudible] greg started with our office today as a intern from uc davis and contim plating going to law school. we are glad to have him here as a extra hands on deck. he is appreciating being here. >> welcome. >> to begin the random audit selection we'll begin with campaign committees with a activ level greater than
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$100 thousand in expenditures. if i can have a member of the public volunteer to read off the list of campaign activities in campaign level one, i appreciate it. yes, please. we'll follow along with the campaign activity level. >> ed lee for mayor, 2015. >> mrs. hart you will have dinner tonight. >> he is just reading off the-- >> hensy for sheriff, 2015. sf for everyone, [inaudible] sponsored by major funding by air bnb. i need someone to watch their hands.
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watch for slide of hands. san franciscans for affordable housing, jobs and parks. san francisco giants, mission bay residents labor small business. sf housing, now, yes on a. san franciscans for real housing solutions, no on i. share better sf, yes on f. landlords affordable housing people. san francisco tenants and families for affordable housing. truth in
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energy, yes on h. committee to save the mission, yes on prop i sponsored by coalition of neighborhood organizations. san francisco alliance for jobs and sustainable growth pack. asian pacific democratic club, political action committee. committee for a progressive and affordable san francisco, opposing peskin for supervisor. friends of jewelry chstensen for supervisor
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sponsored by sfpd association. unit here now local 2 pack. protect our benefits. san francisco labor council and neighborhood pack. committee on jobs government reform fund. building owners and managers association of san francisco, pack ind independent expenditures. ect. >> need another member of the
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public, please. ma'am if you can come up. 19 campaign committees within activity level one greater than $100,000 we'll choose 6. >> henacy for sheriff, 2015. committee for a progressive and affordable san francisco opposing peskin for
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supervisor, 2015. committee to save the mission, prop i sponsored by coalition of mission neighborhood organization. building owners and managers association of san francisco political action committee, independent expenditure, boma sf pack ie.
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unit here local 2 pack. san francisco alliance for jobs and sustainable growth pack.
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>> [background speaking] for activity level 2. reelect sheriff ross vmic reney, 2015. reelect district attorney george escone, 2015. alex randolph for community college board, 2015.
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dennis [inaudible] for city attorney, 2015. san franciscoan for open government, 2015, yes on e sponsored by the chinese american voters education committee. yes on j, san franciscans for preserving legacy businesses. save the san francisco flower market. san franciscan's for clean power, yes on h, no on g, supported by london breed.
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san francisco labor and neighbor member education political issues committee. san francisco apartment association political action committee. sf forward sponsored by san francisco chamber of commerce. san francisco police officers association independent expenditure committee. alice b toqueious lesbian gay and democratic club pack. sf moderates. retain our independent sheriff mark reney,
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2015. >> that is 6 in a row. >> she is reading off the list. >> okay. >> request another member to choose from activity level 2.
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>> that should be interesting. >> i'm sure mr. weaning is happy >> san franciscans. clean power yes on h no an g support by london bree by londd sf moderate
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you're killing me >> the following are campaign comets within 10 and $50,000. >> tom for college board 2015 stuart for mayor of 2015 seis in her for treasurers 2015. >> francisco herrera for sf mayor for 2015
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committee to elect we happened for the college board 2015 wise for mayor 2015 surplus lands for public use in support of prop k don't silent san francisco letters committee for a brighter san francisco future golden gate restaurant national union of health care workers commitment phenomenon quality patient care and union
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democracy transport united workers local 250 a chinese progressive association san francisco labor council labor and neighborhood depict and political action committee fdr democratic club of san francisco homes for all committees supported by the hours association of northern california san francisco deputy sheriffs association pack building owners and managers association of san francisco pack ballot issues aching ballot
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issues and last the san francisco woman's political committee. >> may have a member of the public to draw from the hat here. >> thank you. >> a campaign committees with active between 10 and 50 will be drawing two committees. >> committee name golden gate restaurant association.
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>> tom for college board 2015 moving on to our random selection of lobbyists our first active level will be lobbyist with lobbying activities greater than with an hundred thousand dollars or one hundred contacts. >> good year peter hayward and
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associates. >> p platinum sires oversees h ms associates ground floor public affairs bmw and partners i know reuben, junius & rose lp coalition for better housing
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public advocacy partners san fransco apartment association barbary coast consulting, burg davis public affairs, pacific gas & electric company, and the last one karen flood. >> may i have another member of the public to choose here in lobbyist activity? >> thank you, ma'am.
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>> karen flood how many are we choosing? pacific gas & electric company. >> following group of lobbyists have active levels between 50 thousand to one hundred or 50 to
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one hundred contacts and will be choosing one lobbyist from that active level two. >> love and associates, llc, daniel consulting incorporated, phil lester, google incorporated, michael yack i didn't kissing could systems trust company of the west, building owners and managers association for san francisco
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commissioner the public information a level two we list as sf aa we realize that should be the apartment so we moved the dollar amount in the first year puts them into the can go one and didn't appear on the list and the pool for selection. >> may i have another member from the public to draw from the lobbyist between one and 50 thousand to 50 to one hundred contacts one from this pool. >> just the within for the record charley phil lessor fits activity level two
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i thought we were on one. >> okay should we put them in there oh, we go 3 that's right. >> our final pool with lobbyists greater than 10 to 50 thousand and drawing one lobbyist from this pool. >> lobbyist john newman and singer associates incorporated s g c strategic communications, james ross, braun and mary tell,
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k i s consulting, tissue man properties lp san francisco association of realto realtors, credit securities usa limited liability corporation committee on jobs, hotel council of san francisco target corporation, bay bio. >> one word t z k broadway llp, walgreens company by the way, ma san francisco.
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>> c s p securities lp, yeah. one final member from the audience are the member of the public to draw from this pool required for one lobbyist if this pool >> yes. please thank you. >> s g c strategic communications. >> thank you.
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>> and that concludes the campaign selections of campaign lobbyist for this evening. >> may not be necessary i'll ask if there is any public comment on this process that took place? >> david pilpal speaking as an individual i would ask the summary of actions the next day or two includes the list so thank you. >> thank you ray hart for san francisco open government and i'll agree with mr. pilpal the by a lyric the levels of came back should be given out i predicted are mr.
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brown this no mayor ed lee and no huge $9 million, $4.02 millions all the housing bond initiate on the initiative not one is getting an auditing yet all the oitdz of 50 and 20 and 10 i'll figure out exactly what percentage of the $26 million will get an audit because i don't think that the auditing you know mayor ed lee - mayor ed lee has 3 eggs that have been convicted and sentenced for illegal mayor campaigns and all those people are not going to be audited because you can't audit the mayor well, i'm sorry you could but you wouldn't your two budget committee hypothetical to them
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on appointments or whatever happens to be the citizens of san francisco really ought to watch the sfgovtv and especially those meetings and isle like to see more come here and call you out for your dishonest and your lip service to doing something that will actually make are elections more fair every single election the city for the last 12 years i've served is a field election deputy or a poll inspector i believe my abrogations to encourage people to vote and i'm really disturbed when i see the groups some of the ones on this list deceive the public blatantly spend millions of dollars to do so and yet you have no interest
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whatsoever the mechanics of their institutions i'll go after a person with $20,000 that doesn't have the resources and consider yourself oh, so virtuous our city politics are for sale the mayors position of city attorney looking want mayor none boktsd to run against him he ran by default and didn't get a mrurlt yet those campaigns list the way is a bunch of crap i don't appreciate the commissioner writing a nasty note to the person next to him while i'm talking. >> thank you
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good evening. i'm a neighbor in san francisco my question is i partially agree with the gentleman over here one of the you know the larger committees that were in active one were not selected now my question to the commission when they file their forms and they've recorded their expenditures when the ethics commission revealed that isn't there - do they catch anything not recorded or spent correctly isn't there a way to catch that during the process of reporting the forms? every time the forms are due some of them are recorded every
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3 months and some of them depending on the type of committee they are filed more frequently they file only a monthly i believe or every other month depending on the date my question is that so if a a committee that recorded so much has spent more millions of dollars how can they be held audible it there. i don't know if i'm wording it right mates i that's my question from the committee hadn't been selected like what we did moments ago and they catch something the reporting how is that handled one and two is it public record? >> thank you. >> thank you do you want to
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respond to that. >> yes. thank you thank you for the question for purposes of selecting the committees for the audit the committees not selected will not be support to a random audit now the commission has authority under the chapter of the regulations to initiate an inquiry of initiated complaint if we build that someone has not filed or suggested in a wrongdoing we deal with that -- excuse me. within the enforcement arena that puts it into the arena of other complaints are confidential the charter mandate. >> she's asked the question at the - when we file their quarterly are whatever the dates they file a committee files the report from the staff were to see that for example, a
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contribution of $10 but the limit is 5 thousand dollars they'll pickup and have an action is there some review. >> there's a process the regulations i can't remember the site exactly but a process that the commission has used to do a facial review and when statements come in i think the question outstanding to what step up to the plate we've been doing that it clearly is an important place to review things at the first instance we'll detect the problems proactively. >> seeing the public comment has not closed no, no i'll let you talk but go ahead - i'll. >> i wouldn't want to speak out of school. >> i'll remember what you are to say and mr. pelham mentioned
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you have the authority when a questionable campaign you don't have to rely on a random drawing or chance to decide who audits e.r. go top cadet recorded the expenditures one $.5 million the gentleman informed you it there are 3 people being investigated by the da on now local charges involving the ed lee mayor caption for 2015 don't you think this is the primary campaign to audit dow don't you think george
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gascon needs help the ethics commission will have an ethical backbone to audit mayor ed lee from 2015 the public seeing news reports in the examiner about moseley and keith expect this commission to do it's part in auditing those campaigns and those consultants and the co-milking of $10,000 campaign nominations that apparently are twice unpaid mayor ed lee made aware of the 10 thousand donation being split
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the people who read the newspapers and can red between the lines know this is something going on here that needs to be investigated and you need to mount on investigation of ed lee campaign. >> thank you. >> commissioner keane. >> can i ask the gentleman mr. pelham would it take something special to audit mayor ed lee's campaign outside of the regular things that are auditing the other matters or i know it was in there he didn't get picked but if at the golden picked would that be an enormous thing
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to do or could it be done the regular course of things. >> sandy it wouldn't have an, an enormous pursuant to the audit process. >> i'm not saying i was there and hoping he would get picked so i could see mr. hart swallowing but if it had would that have entailed anything more substantial than the audits of the other matters. >> not other than the dollars amount be a bigger audit again, if i understand your question right from the commission were to initiate an audit in addition to those who were randomly selected what's the purpose of the random collection that maybe
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a large question what kind of policy the commission may want to reinvite for the committees and that methodology. >> in addition to the random selection that we have a few moment ago i thought i heard we're in the limit we also want to do anything one and went forward that we have the authority to do that would that be correct? >> again, the current selection is based on the current populated discussed in 2008, from the commissioner were to discuss and want to adopt a different additional prologis ccig oakland global policy my recommendation that is the way to approach the question whether the committees in addition to the process would be audited. >> okay. i understand that in terms of we'll be doing something out of the ordinary and you would not feel
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comfortable in terms of the protocol i understand that i also understand how the colleagues and others - would we be preincluded. >> there is not that preincludes the commission for what kind of audits you may or may not want. >> and ged and initially with the random ones nothing that preincludes i move we audit mayor ed lee. >> i'll ask the city attorney if it is on the agenda or whether it has to be agendized for the next meeting. >> well, i'll leave to the city attorney the legal i will raise from the policies prospective i think that is very, very important for the commission to have with a
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broader discussion about the factors again, if the commission is call for an investigation that is one thing but i just think that is important for the commission to have a clearheaded policies to determine who is audit so everyone knows our for the purpose of treating everyone fairly and i agree with you entirely i'll not want to do that is it just throughout this year we have had both the press and we've had discussions amongst ourselves in this body interest the members of the public and we've audited about the matters has to do with with alleged corruption at the top levels of san francisco government the federal investigation, and the indictment of the individuals that were involved,
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the fact that the da george gascon is involved in a vigorous investigation related to the maertsz has to do with with those taped transcripts mayor ed lee's associates with various individuals that were shown to be illegal, in fact, 3 people that are now essentially they're going to prison and the talk was continually about the mayor and influence pedestrianing i think we have not nor have i asked for more i think would we have enough issue to initiate a formal investigation of mayor ed lee regarding these things many
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of them anecdotal but certainly in regards to us having the power to conduct an audit and i hate to agree with mr. hart he gets my obligate on most of the things he says the questions that are raised i think are substantial and since say is not something that will be a lot of effort or hassle for us to do i think there is sufficient justification for us to toss ed lee's name inlets do him as as audit i think we have things that call for some questions that might be answered so in that sense what's the harm i see nun
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i see also a certain degree of credibility coming to the commission for stepping forward and doing that and it is beyond the protocol but i'll say in terms of my own observation of the city government it is anecdotal for me, i see a lot of corruption that is soft corruption from the top down and i think many other members of the public the editorial boards of newspapers do it is more us of sticking our toe the water and put him in the audit so mr. chair, i respectfully move we audit mayor ed lee. >> so i think there is two pending questions me to take them one at that time
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for the general powers to audit the subsection the government could code provides the ethics commission shall audit the committees in addition his or her description to take a the ram selected members eir receptionist from the committee gets the local fund that's what we prescribed. >> but mayor ed lee's committee didn't receive the public funds i know that some of the public funds did he receive. >> it's not a mandatory audit subject to the audit by the selection process like the one you saw the second issue in terms of the agenda notice or description i think that is beyond the scope to talk about
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commissioner keanes motion. >> do i hear a second to the motion. >> i'll second it. >> any public comment? >> charley for the record i remember seeing something when ed lee considering electing public financing i'm glad that we do audit public finance cadets he only spent a million dollars and a half not a robust election i don't know what we will see if we did audit him what will be better so look at some of the independent expenditure committees with the
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city contracts and 3 would be taken generally because that is always an issue the city but i support frankly the position of executive director i'll think that given the questions that have been raised by the public tonight on some of the processes that it may be that the new executive director might have some perspectives on the process that states 2008 before they are tenure and that there maybe a different process for instance, for the f p pc or los angeles that she maybe aware that i know she is active in other organization over the years this year might be a better way to approach than the past and the past traditions have fallen
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short of where we may want to be as we move forward i can assure you you've not been expresses with the audit process and not sure that is shaken out very much as a as a result maybe the time to look at audit the audit process and see if this is meeting our exceptions and the extension of our public and the technical dynamics that are occurring the city contracts. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government the reason i didn't want to participate the process my lucky would have drawn mayor ed lee and wouldn't have obtained eating it glad to eat it to get him audited bottom line the
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person responsible like mark farrell who came in and wanted to deny the one and 93 thousand an amount equal to 60 percent of what he spent on his campaign that is the same thing with mayor ed lee it was a bunch of my flung easy was the united states navy and the bottom line if you want to end our career as an officer go to a hearing board and saying our ship was sunk or damaged you're responsible you'll out the door in 5 seconds if you're in charge you're responsible the mayor is in charge and ought to be audited as far as commissioner keane this no the popularity contest not here to get our friendship i know those things mean
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absolutely nothing unless you're a member of city government i call you the backroom like the chair was called for the fine or supervisor farrell and we don't know who was said or the problem is and you go the back and hide it the bottom line the mayor needs to be audited this campaign needs to be audited one reason he has 2 to 3 opposition that's the reason he didn't take public comment that was an easy out the bottom line is this is really a test before the public as to whether or not you have what it takes to hold sfopg audible i'm predicting that there fail on a 3 to 2 vote and there will be no audit of the mayor that simply shows that you are the pocket of people that appoint you and you can sit
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there and shack your heads no or what you usually do no comments and especially lawyers that silence is consent so go ahead vote this down don't audit the mayor and let the insistence of the san francisco feinstein see what i see and many others we come to those meetings and listen to your stuff trying to justify doing nothing and i'll say it again, if you can show me anything this committee has done the last 10 years to make this city better i'd like to see that. >> before we vote that commissioner renne i'm in support of commissioner hayons motion on the floor. >> i'd like to think that mr.
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pelham having heard the district attorney indicate she has the horticulture to make that decision without you that that will get you off the backside and take the leadership role and prove mr. hart's wrong there will be a 3 to 2 vote all right. but a 3 to 2 vote to audit the mayor campaigns for 2015 san franciscans expect you to do the ethical thing and conduct the audits because if he didn't have anything to hide he shouldn't be afraid for audited even in la you have pelham; right? if you've done nothing
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wrong don't be afraid of an audit it is only when the - and the keiths get caught on federal that the mayors start worrying about what will happen on an audit you can doing the right thing with a 3 to 2 vote and audit did mayors campaign or ms. pelham so consider ord the audit independently based on the city attorney information san franciscans want to welcome you with open arms ms. pelham that's because we've had too much corruption at city hall for too
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many years. >> thank you. >> dipped again speak as an individual sometimes things happen that are not scripted that makes it interesting i think i would agree with the comment from the deputy city attorney northern california that process only selects audits randomly other than the law that was quoted i don't i'm not sure i see a problem making a sort of start selection based on at criteria and from the commission chooses to audit the mayors campaign based on what we've read the paper i'm not sure there is a problem i don't know what an audit will reveal we believe that the higher value
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campaigns hire the also and account it's an i'm not sure we'll find material problems through an audit but not sure i could be wrong and maybe the audit is the best course to answer any outstanding questions relative to the mayor's campaign 2015 an intriguing question and - good luck on this one thanks. >> any other public comment? before we vote i want to ask ms. pelham if this motion passes if it pose any problems to your point of view at the staff level to add this to the other audits that will be done >> thank you for the question
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commissioner renne my concern not whether this pose a problem for the staff in terms of doing an audit or looking at the level of the audit that will result if it were to add the mayor ed lee ed lee for mayor of 2015 for mayor to the mix i want to be clear about my general concern about establishing a process that is not predictable for the public or for candidates we we select for example, important to be able to follow through on that selection process there is certainly, if the commission choices and feels a need to audit that is the direction to me i understand that i think that is very important as an organization, however, it is about
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transparency and about process and about other holding others accountability to the process my concern will be simply from the commission feels there is a level of committee and there are issues raised i think that is something that will be very important to create a new policy going forward so we share the candidates if they spend more than $50,000 but the last thing to have the public have's the miss prospective it is based on individual rather than policy concerns i know that is not the intent of anybody on the panel but make that point and encourages us to do things in a formalized process i think that ultimately benefits the work of the commission and the integrity of the commission i appreciate the opportunity. >> as i understand the thrust
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e.r. the basis of this request made is that there is at least some public perception that there may have been problems with the mayors campaign and clearly if any campaign not a question of over one million dollars any question were to rise the newspaper than mr. exes campaign was accepting illegal payments or whatever else it would be a justification for the commission to say let's even though not randomly selected i understand the random was so that there isn't the sort of fastenerism picking on someone that is not popular but the randomness to show we're not selecting and making in any determination that the committee
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should be audited in our random selection the question if there is a perception public that a campaign committee may have violated the law isn't that sufficient justification for the commission to say let's add that to our random selection as a policy matter but this is a thought. >> commissioner commissioner andrews. >> i'm sorry mr. chair we're creeping we're actually getting into the discussion i feel we should have i do have to say i probably will not support that i'm one for process i believe in transparency and protocol i believe if we are amended or justifies over and over adjust our protocol or policy we've been blamed in the past first, i
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want to say yes. i think - in terms of an audit we should definitely do more audits if that is messing campaign this is not our only chance next month seems to me we can do that but i've seen at least the last 23 or years i've been on the commission we jujd to a conclusions and don't have all the steps laid out and we get tripped up and try to put band-aids i'm thinking about a few situations i want to think this through so it is not mayor ed lee we're take into account we're targeting any candidates or many particular a campaign
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that has an allegation we need to talk about that a little bit more and continue this for next month and after that discussion or ms. mroem bring some policy revisions or suggestion we'll think about where the commission would think about moving forward with a audit that we come up with some developed policy first and give it good thought at the end of the discussion say not only did mayor ed lee campaign meets the threshold any other commitment meets the threshold and coming for you as well as in that campaign you were spending your dollars it feels like one of and feels chief executive
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officer reject i didn't or that we need to be more thoughtful about that as we move forward this is not our one and only time to call for an audit we can do it a time and place of our choosing within our regular meeting i think we should exercise both the opportunity to have good discussion and make a good informed decision about that. >> commissioner hur. >> i agree with commissioner andrews and the executive director when you talk about backbone especially this commission what is important it is equitable and fair, i think to have to throw for a commissioner to start throwing out names of people that should audited without the policy descriptions there are for that policy makes us vulnerable to a political process we're supposed
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to be in support of so i'll agree the motion should not carry. >> i agree with everything many was said by commissioner hur and commissioner andrews and our executive director i think that lets set a policy maybe needs to audit every single campaign committee over a certain amount not just the random ones but if we think we need to audit go anything over one million dollar and let's agree that we'll do that it appears to be fair the last thing to be having a witch-hunt and total urban fairness i'll not support the motion at this point but, yes let's come up with a policy if that's what we want to do and you know look at how much work that will be given all the other committees that are being audited as well
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but maybe a separate category where it is called for . >> commissioner keane do you want to reconsider our motion. >> i don't want to reconsider my motion with all due respect to the colleagues it disagree when we're not coming up with that one on sort of a toss of a coin we're coming up with this one there are substantive things the appearance of substantive things out there and surfacing in the publics mind as viewed here and the press and in the prosecution of a number of people that appear to have on their claim have been plugged in with the mayor and the mayors people in terms of being able to
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deliver pay to play type of situations now, i'm not prejudging that but and there is an active - as i said an active investigation going on by district attorney george gascon he said it several times so this is not just us saying someone myself saying out of the air ed lee is a big shot and has more than a million dollars he is spending maybe we don't like ed lee let's audit him we're doing this with real substance behind it ear auditing all sorts of other characters minor characters for the random on the random basis we might have been auditing mayor ed lee if h he had mr. hart's finger
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the jar or something else happened we're not and so i think in terms of the fact we can do that we have all those reasons in terms of public credibility to go ahead and do that we should do that. >> and i think it wouldn't be a big deal if we did certainly not a witch-hunt and in regards to going after poor mayor ed lee in regards to the allegations out there we're not picking him out the fact it is unusual and protocol is something that has not happened before there are times in history you say protocol is indicated that something different should be done
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watergate investigation i'm not comparing ed lee with nixon but a complete parallel type of process to the usual processes there appeared to be dirty things going on in government and i'm - we're doing something much less than that and there's no big deal about what we are could go that is a question of dignity we should go forward and do that. >> i'll call the question. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> opposed? >> no, no the motion is defeated 2 to 3. >> all right. turning to item number 6 discussion thought possible action on craft regulations terms used the city whistle blower protection ordinance i
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will i'm going to turn it over to tom and commissioner hur. >> thank you chair this is the agenda item continued from last month's meeting contains the recommendation on the memo and commissioner hur and acting decree jessie look at the end of last year and put together a memo outlining recommendations building on the comments and concerns of the civil grand jury report issued last in 2014 to 2015 regarding the san francisco whistle blower ordinance in need of change this memo is presented with a recap of those grand jury recommendations provide a recap the analysis and the responded from the earlier memo in january and recaps proposed language for
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the issues that were that report identified and an attachment one and two as drafted language in attachment one these are draft regulations for your consideration assuming the whistle blower ordinance stayed as it currently is with the statutory language and attachment 2 takes that a bit further and looks about the changes to the ordinance itself along with regulations and that will come with that to clarify and address some of the issues that were raised the report i'm not sure in commissioner hur want to jump in and happy to walk you through and i'll take the direction how you wanted to proceed. >> sxhour. >> thank you commissioner renne and director pelham the memo was well done i want to focus the commissions attendance on the attachment on the meat on the bones that is the actual
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language for the proposed amendments to the actual ordinance i also thought of president to thank the grng thank you for your recommendation and friends of ethics it was helpful in working out and the public was quite helpful i think it is worth paejs to the two attachments attachment one we as the commission can pass the ordinance amendment obviously will require help from the board i think of we jump past attachment one it will be a significant step in the right direction but the ordinance can use some work and i like the proposed language the ordinance it's the one
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section that i think maybe we can use city attorney help on this cancelation of restrictiony but we can put in there we'll have the authority to you know it is workable that would i think that is maybe worth a particular focus. >> we also tried in here to get at contractors who were working for the city in a fairway and share they'll be covered and subject to the ordinance. >> any discussion generally let me ask you commissioner hur
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any reason why we shouldn't adopt the task of one the regulations and also move forward with the attachment two in terms of that the way the board acts any down side with our enacting these regulations. >> is that duplication of effort or confusion here. >> director pelham should weigh in this we pass attachment one we'll do some good it is not redundant to the changes to the ordinance i think that the ordinance changes separately should be adopted as well don't
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believe we can do that tonight but vote to send it. >> oh, i was kevin with the city attorney from the commission passes that they would have the effect of - yeah effective one 60 days after the commissions acts that does provide some improvement as commissioner hur said seller to know whether the commission direction to move the discussion about the statutory with with that would be helpful will be require the board of supervisors to weigh in on this regulations that will be in place either way whether it takes the wind out of the sales the changes are not statutory changes that is hard to predict but a case for wanting to improve the bill with not the
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perfect with the better of the good i suppose. >> so would the board if we were to pass it and send to the board the board can pass it and send to back send it back. >> right? >> yeah. so in terms of the legislative process for the owners inu unlike the changes within our purview there is no requirement that it be sent back certainly the sponsors of the ordinance wish to do that as a courtesy or seek other guidance from the ms. pelham we can make ongoing dialogue but no legal requirement. >> so they'll make whatever whangz and if it passes it is
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law. >> although i imagine a lot of opportunities for the mayor to get it to more formal sort of looking legislative proposal i'm sure they'll have further questions in the end and certainly hearings about the prompt changes at least one committee meeting and potentially more which the director can participate again informal was for the commission to participate. >> isn't the process can't the process you know - we're talking about the ordinance changes is working collaboratively with the board in terms of at least of the one or two supporters on the board that will chair carry the water when it comes time for approval in terms of our drafting didn't have to be this is it and the
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board sit down and drafts it with staff meets with staff from some of the supervisors and here's the language as to what is feasible. >> yeah. my recollection on that point in terms of the board of supervisors considered this the civil grand jurys report several supervisors on that board committee spent a lot of interest with the protection ordinance with the protection there is probable some represent certify activity from the board of supervisors. >> so tonight might be a good opportunity to you know for folks to vet this and it makes sense and hopefully send it along. >> i'll propose we deal with attachment one whether we want to go through each sections are deal with that as a whole and
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then have a motion either to approve regulations or not. >> would be my professional go ahead and commissioner, i suggest we deal with it as a whole it is integral. >> you mean one. >> yes. it is fairly sdwral and go ahead and have discussion and agree on that take it as a whole. >> any comments? i guess the question i'll ask you commissioner hur is that we did get a draft or an e-mail i think from larry bush with some suggestions for example, taking issue with 4.1 is 0 that the complaints must be 2, 3, 4
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writing i know we discussed it the last time but you would not be open to making a change to - >> i think that is a balance and i talked to mr. bush about this direct a balance between having some something that is concrete and insuring that all complaints with adjudicated i think that one thing mr. bush said i thought was a good i included all communications reported by a recipient should account we have something in writing it is concrete whether or not someone submits it and frankly mr. bush not here to explain his part of conversation but you make a complaint to someone in the department you
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know it becomes quite it can be hard to determine what happened and i think that on the sort of burden benefit scale weighs in favor of not including things such as those. >> are there any other comments? do i hear a motion >> move we approve attachment one. >> all right. >> motion to made and seconded call for public comment? >> i brought a handful one for many pelham and 5 copies for the board i would hope that you would adopt both amendment one or
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attachment one and attachment 2 almost four years claude i didn't ruled the wrongful termination a major flaw in the conduct code the code provides no retaliation protection for employees to experience first amendment speech rights i'm san bruno an a strange of the ruling between seven hundred and 50 solicit and $450,000 to the city attorney expenses trying to stop dr. occur the city dished out $1.8 million that should incorporate for that amount of money incorporate concerning argue w p l o amendments of the
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grand jury didn't report the glaring problem passed prop c directing the board of sups to say a meaningful pio and the basic human rights has not been added it is time to do so today what does it say about this commission in san francisco's city government itself to continue to allow retaliation against city employees that simply exercise their first amendment amendment rights the employees want to serve the say they have a relinquish their voting rights which jurisdictions require the government employees to forego a
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first amendment protection and enjoyed by all americans insistence in order to gain government employment i testified to the board of sups the oversight committee september 3rd, 2015, city employees expect this body and the board of sups to amendment the w pio for the first amendment protections for the city employees it is its been a long time coming it is long overdue i encourage you to have the human rights protections while you're taking this tuesday night but urge you to advocate with the board of sups and the mayor to incorporate that protection the f dot one a 7 c. >> you thank you. i think your time has run. >> thank you. >> any other comments
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>> good afternoon, commissioners and director pelham i'm dr occurring over 20 years the ethics commission has never sub granted a whistle blower exclaim one reason that the ethics commission is a dead end for whistle blowers is that whistle blowers threaten power structures to which this commission is connected i i don't see a procedural fix for what is a political impasse but since we're addressing fixes tonight i'll make some suggestions 4 the first so consider alternating the burden of proof by requiring proximate cause rather than a clause of -
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this is what the whistle blowers protection whistle blowers don't have access to 41 percent of evidence the wrong doors are 100 percent percent of the evidence of wrongdoing your staff lacked the resources and the courage to get the evidence so users a probable cause standard is more appropriate given the circumstances and number 2 i'm worried about your defining a complaint as solely written it tends to did he leg missing misses other complaints that written complaint is reasonable for a whistle blower retaliation claim but not for the primary initial whistle blower containment most of
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whistle blower complaint with made verbally to a supervisor but what the boss is compliant the misconduct the whistle blower is doomed and has no prove of having filed a complaints it whatnot written it is usually verbal it is on this after retaliation that people write things down and send them in also nowadays workers will report complaints on their cell phones or misconduct so if somebody brings you a video of misconduct or a video of their complaint will be dismiss that because it is not written suppose the whistle blower brings you documents that show fraud are you going to about g ignore those without a written
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complaint that goes with them will you dismiss someone like deep throat that discovered nixon containments because it was observe the phone september e expect the documents or written i'm concerned about setting a time limit on investigations it not enough because it doesn't insure that the investigation will be adequate it is very easy to do a substandard investigation under the time limit. >> thank you. your steady your time. >> i'm sorry. >> thank you. >> david pilpal the motioned is on attachment one to death penalty the four proposed regulations. >> that's correct. >> on that the first 3 start out with the sub a that suggests
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a b and possibly a c i'll suggest not including that unless that are b and c the writing is what inconsistent and include the language shawl and some have will i will standard device that to shall throughout perhaps on the second right point and other similar adverse employment shall include effecting the last one of the regulation staff shall initiate, etc. the third 1-b one i'm not quite sure it is titled b-1 is refers to one one a i'm not sure that is the correct reference i think that sub b that the hearing or
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the adjudication of complaints. >> i'm sorry under the third. >> either b-1 and then line 24 referring to b or if it is a maybe it is a too i think that suck b and so maybe 24 that needs to get fixed i think staff is on this i think in general going on to page 2 the nonetheless quarterly report to the commission make sense i assume those had been confidential reports not entirely clear and i think in keeping the complanlts up to date about the status of their primer review make sense one of the things that people make complaints and don't get an
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immediately acknowledgement so i think in summer those regulations help you will make those minor housekeeping changes and i'll offer comments when we get to the next item thanks. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government attend the ethics commission is similar to watching people rearranging chairs on the deck of the titanic whistle blower protection in this city is non-compliant any person involved the city government possessing even a motor intelligence they're on their own and rewriting the rules is meaningful when the commission lakes the resources to enforce their own finding each must be of this commission is appointed by the people over whole their provide the oversight with the
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whistle blower are the responsibility felt 5 individuals each one that reported you and if that happened in their department under our watch your j judging them with the whistle blower complainants the past the most sub certainty is placed in charge in investigating or handling that regardless of effort to rewrite the rules whistle blowers no idea to be aware that they are solely and completely on their own they will get absolutely jack crap from this commission or another at commission to protect them or to support them. >> this ethics commission the past as far as i'm aware has done nothing nothing to support those who have the encourage and sdrit to speak up when you
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woenlt protect the people with the courage and the integrity your own lack of encourage and lack of integrity people don't like my comments you should be polite but i tell them when they make that comment that i'm being exterminate to file under the marcus keenzburg rules while the commissioners and starch is using mixed marshall arts rules you'll not do a damn thing to protect the whistle blower pass the legislation like the sunshine ordinance you spent 5 damn years rewriting how you'll handle 9 sunshine referrals have you ever had one that is meaningful stuff you put out there to make people to think you're doing something and fool
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them i'll be honest is rises to the level of defrauding you're doing something meaningful i ask mr. occurring subject to one of the things the one and something the million dollars that 33 had to pay the city will rather pay is ousted don't try to cut me off when you give everybody else 10 more seconds. >> i didn't. >> you started to. >> hello commissioners elaine friends of ethnics commissioner hur tutor all the effort for the whistle blower regulations together and for acknowledging larry bush sent information i've been dealing with him i just wanted to speak specific
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to the idea about the written comment and as i understood our introductory comments you're saying it may not have to be in writing but there should be some kind of record if we could find of using the way record instead of written that then allows phone video you you know just a little bit snip even though of a video that is a record of someone saying it is written it could be a language barrier problem or the dr referred to something else by use the word written we have had a strong reaction to our using basically a standard technology now a number of other technologies that can provide the record that you're after thank you.
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>> charley again with friends ever ethics i thought that at the bill back meeting the general obligation bond committee meeting that mr. bush happens to be that a member that was recorded in their recent hearing last week on the whistle blower ordinance that the state does not require a written notice do you remember mr. bush making that statement or - >> you don't remember that being raised it is possible that was raised by the chairman or the yeah, the acting chairman 9 civil grand jury committee that made the presentation before go
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back by the way, i'm sorry you pissed missed that that was an excellent presentation we may not be totally in conform as an with the states concept they allow non-written reports so i would agree with my colleague on f o e we might want to fudge that definition and include some record that complaint was filed that was broader this is an written i thought that mr. bush's that there are an unanimous training because i know the city employees receive those as a matter of course in a great many areas and could well be this added to that program about
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basically make that contrary to the city committee the need the best mechanism would be the need to put it in writing and if this is problematic it didn't preclude others means the best and highest standard to protect all concern would be to put it in writing as suggested and then indicate that it is writing presents a problem on language or some people really can't write or express themselves well in writing then that another measure could be utilized but that that is important that a record be maintained in that of that meeting and the fact that the complaint what in a documented form i don't know if i'm totally clear i'm giving a hive standard
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of prove. >> commissioner hur. >> i like ms. smith and the mr. currency suggestion i wonder we should - i'll give you an examp example. >> maybe if you're going on with our examples you ought to put some example electronically something that shows whether it be a cell phone or video or whatever. >> might be concern with putting in an example of video or audible so, yes i think if a
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person were to record an event happening that could be sufficient evidence of the complaint that would comply with the regulations this is again tending to prove or disprove i hadn't thought about that but don't want to make a suggestion that people are recording it is illegal under california law i mean i'm open to including example i'm not sure you need examples i think that will open it up and not to make it meaningful distinction. >> i'll kept that as friendly amendment to approve attachment a that sxhour has suggested to end the words and record or reco
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record. >> i think he had other language in there. >> we may need to delete written at the end of the first line have to be i mean a written communication do you have any thoughts on that. >> director pelham. >> or you that that is okay. because it is just an example. >> i think that you were to strike the written at the end the line 10 i'm not sure we'll losses anything it is informal writing or record it has the balance of some recognize i agree if someone is standing on the street with video capturing and people taking good ideas out of a whatever they'll want to
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capture. >> let's take out written at the end of the line sorry to interrupt you. >> you accept that amendment. >> i do yes i'll call the question. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> of adopting attachment one as amend amended>> i. >> opposed? let the record reflect. >> this is in response to mr. pilpals comment we looked at 24 that should reference so let's talk about that minor anti or take a separate vote. >> city attorney advising if you could take a quick vote. >> maybe vote to give me her
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discretion. >> thank you anyone else you find. >> die have a motion to that effect. >> so moved and. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> i guess i'll call public comment? all right. >> i like an opportunity to comment on a motion on the floor particularly it gives ms. pelham is discretionary authority to add to section 4 dot 114 a romania numeral 3 and insert roman numerical 3 to comply with the judges recommendation to add first amendment rights protections why would you not do that.
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>> why would ms. pelham not use her discretion to amend editorial issues and attachment one why should my neighbor in and apartment building have freedom of speech rights and as a than current city employee i didn't what was that all about? simply because you become a city employee you can be retaliated against and that's okay do my managers did any managers add laguna honda hospital and substantially department of emergency services no, it would
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be okay to retaliate against me using my first amendment free speech right and you'll be okay with that if one of you don't make that motion to add it - i think you should pull out the red editorial pen and add that g before i windup in front of the board of sups begging them to put it in there so the next judge wilkins didn't have to noted a serious flaw in the city chapter and in your regulations that you write with our red pen can change >> thank you. >> i'll call the question oh,
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any public comment. >> just one more thing commissioners i'm worried about the preferential fix of having timely investigations that would be an empty procedural represent rationed what is needed a quality review mechanism to insure that an investigation is an investigation whether it is done in thirty or 90 days didn't matter the quality of the work that matters to the chibz and the public also i strongly support amending the whistle blower ordinance the protection ordinance so that contractors are covered one of them recorded miss appropriations the central subway accounting system a contractor there they were fudging the budget she
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went to the whistle blower program and met with the city attorney and was told oh, we can't protect you, your a contractor so the ordinance should be amended to so that fraud in contracts which take hundreds of million dollars of public dollars every year could be imposed and the whistle blowers will be protected in some way thank you. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government and i will repeat on this section the same as the section before what damn difference does that make you pass you have no intention of enforcing and you don't this law has been on the books for how long and not one time has anyone been protected an effort made to protect them and city agencies
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rare on a regular basis retaliate take job actions and the only defense that most of city employees is their own union that gets a bad name their oh, i can't firefighter an city employee you can photographer a city employee if you do paperwork that is justified and supply get rid of of an employee that does something which discloses the fact you were doing something illegal and they in an effort to hide it retaliated now, i'm not an city employee but alicia the city larger than and the jet of the library commission used and abused their position to withhold records from oar period of two years i appellate the city attorney's office to force
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them to disclose they denied two positions the first one after a year and the second one after the second year i took them to the sunshine ordinance task force they found them in violation for supporting on public body that was with - for acting as their council for a public body withholding public records you won't do a damon thick to enforce this you can sit and reangry the letters on a page but the citizens of san francisco anyone who is ever been protected by this law he said no, he couldn't so it pa what you're here to sit around and just a second our yauz and make changes to things that are irrelevant have no intention of enforcing them the very people you have to go after
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the people that put you in our seat it is hard to convince a man when a man's job is not united way that's what you do you sit down and do everything that you look at 83 the desk and don't pay attention you make funny noise and funny faces and when the public comes and calls you out you sit down silently they'll not finally come to the conclusion you don't work for them despite the oath. >> thank you i'll call the question to give permission to the executive director to make the changes for the tip graph errors things of that nature. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> opposed? that motion carries 5 to nothing turning no 80 now to attachment
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number 2 which if i understand correctly what you're seeking from us here is direction to whether or not we want you to proceed with drafting amendments to the ordinance for the board of supervisors approval; is that correct? >> yes. this has the entirety of the ordinance and to clarify some of the issues with the civil grand jury and commissioner hur and others commissioners original january 20th memo there are some items in here we'll be looking for the policy commissioner policy direction to like us to continue on with conversations with the board of supervisors and is as you said we've had a collaborative process and possess on the officials of controller to xiem the contractor that the policy
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decision that commission time to explore further including the contractor that work for the city under terms of the contracted for to say city and county of san francisco that that works in pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. practice will be some requirements further input from a the departments that are experience working with the city contractors i think we're looking for policy direction on all things probation officer purchase. >> you very specific issues that you would like directions on you mentioned the contractor. >> if we start at section 41 hundred for example, there is language that addresses the language of contractors start on line 17 it would state the language is mirrored through the employment places i'll highlight this was will create a new reference to the protection of
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the whistle blower ordinance extends to contractors operating within the scope of a contract with the city and county of san francisco from retaliation and but also expands the language on line 20 to file complaints what about beyond just those filed with our own agency that recognized an employee's they're more comfortable bringing complaints elsewhere and extend to the individuals that want to bring complaint outside of their own agencies if to a supervisory employee and decided to do something with that that is in section 41 hundred to expanding the base or the points of contact for actually receiving a complaint that actually provides protection for the whistle blower protection ordinance.
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>> do you want me to continue. >> section for example, on line starting at line 15 there is some language that would clarify what are the types of activities that improper government activity means and so it strikes reference to violations of the california penal code because that seems to be a very high standard for what can be alleged in other words to get protection under the protection ordinance but not fits language about engross raised fraud and abuse of city resources that adds clarifying language for those types of irks are appropriate subject matters for the retaliation if their
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information is brought forward that should be appropriately covered. >> if i can forward to let's see - sections 4.115 you'll see the same language we get to the language it talks about the retaliation it prohibited it talks about the contractor operating outside the scope or contractor has in good faith filed a complaint elsewhere define it with supervisory employee with the at the individuals department or another city and county or federal agency so again, this language is
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trying to provide the actual protection on the bottom of this same page in the administrative complaints the notation that in order to provide some accountability that doesn't currently exist the ethics commission may refer matters to the dhr and require that any other board or officer report to the administration that is referred for a followup that will introduce some language that is spectacular to the controller's office elsewhere that says 90 a day within receiving a referral the commission or referral from the administration for investigation and possible disciplinary action the department shall report back to the administration if so a power tool what happens on the issues when their properly
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referred to another department that's the language we're proposing to include and get our feedback on. >> there is clarification on the next page on line 7 to 9 under the burden of retaliation to clarify one of the points that commissioner hur and staff member addressed that clarifying where the burden of establishing what pivots that will clarify to establish the retaliation occurred a complaint in a civil action demonstrates or the commission in an administrative proceeding must determine by the preponderance of the evidence that the complainants engagement was a motivating factor and trying to clarify the standards for the procedure that are used under subsection c we're
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proposing to include under subdivisions 5 underlines 25 through 29 accident requested that the commissioner hur mentioned earlier that the language for cancelation that following an administrative hearing for the existing authority and making a vbldz many or that a violation happened may doll for call for the interpretation or other adverse employment who exercise their voting rights under the protection ordinance that was directly referenced if the civil grand jury report. >> so i think that and combined with the civil penalties thinking about what makes sense maybe that massachusetts make more sense for not the retaliation but it
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is worth the commission consideration how best to implement some sort of penalties and remedies for violations. >> if i could directing your attention to section on the next page on lines 26 through thirty we're included new language for the sanctioned for the disclosure of the whistle blower that was through no the addressed in the civil grand jury report i think on point as we went through this there is not a specific sanction for someone it disclosed a identify of a whistle blower of the perimeter of the law and those individuals that knowing are subject to a sanction as well. >> i think those are the essential components the hangs that for the actual statutory
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language the last two packages of the attachment two there are draft regulations that very much anywhere the draft regulations of attachment one that you acted on to this to the extent that make sense the changes will be made consistent and to the extent they clarify the reverberations that are added or exist the revised ordinance those regulations will apply. >> is there a motion - what direction wishes the staff to proceed in attachment 2. >> that's a good question on the draft regulations on the back of the revised ordinance do we need any of these now we've
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adopted attachment one. >> i think the idea was this - the language of the ordinance will change as shown in attachment two those regulations will still be useful because for example, as it is currently drafted it would not chaplain complaint as shown in promoted regulation 4.10. >> we've. >> if that were in place would it needs to be changed based on the language of ordinance actually no. those will be consistent thank you for that clarification i misunderstand. >> all right. a so just to
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confirm mr. chair i'm assuming now we've gone over them it would be appropriate for director pelham to meet with key staff at the board of supervisors to review those and get their comments on it and possibly bring that back to the commission. >> for more discussion? >> i think if this is the commission desire ebt or if those are policy areas of interest and action by the commission to say we're on board with those in concept and want to talk with the board officers to see where the specific language that's one way of approaching that don't think the lovely of comfortable with the concept that are embedded the
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draft ordinance i don't know from the city attorney has anything to audio. >> i mean that's the pobltd and the other possibility we're recommended and so the board know that is soft what we want to do and several a back and forth with the board no, we can't do this and that but i might be more helpful to send them language for them to device and deal with. >> i'm for one am consistent with the upgraded changes that were discussed and so whatever we can do to get this forward and get it before the board hopefully and adopt that. >> i think that makes sense mr. chair and also for us to - the number of things we are addressed by ms. pelham to try
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to word smith we'll be here all night and whether or not we could i mean, i've tried to process as much as i can in terms of the fine presentation i think that commissioner hurs suggestion is good let's get it to the board. >> moved. >> i move we approve attachment two. >> all right. any further discussion before public comment >> i'll take public comment. >> david pilpal speaking as an individual my first is there a meat and cover as it effects the city employees the past and certainly i don't know next very much appreciate the first of all, all the work but also in particular including
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contractors i'm not sure though this language actually ultimately does the tricky read this to cover the contractor. >> sorry starting on package one lines 17 and 18 the contractors operating outside the scope r beyond the scope that's the contractorism bus not an employee therefore so i'll strongly encourage adding the employees something to it effect if you're intent to cover not only the contractor but the employee and i like that construct of operating beyond the scope of a contract but for some reason that entire expect isn't on page 2 lines 14 it says operating pursuant rather win the scope
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and not just the contractor but the employee there were other points in here - sorry these pages are not numbered i guess 4 about the one one 5 a i'm not sure why you're proposing 90 days the particular with the controller is 60 days you wouldn't days is a good amount of time i'll suggest that conforming that to 60 days on the next page penalties and remedies line 24 i like increase the amount from 5 to 10 through these but not sure indexing that to inflation is easy to do unless the controller is the shoring the new amount it gets
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complicated reducing it to 10 and the next time it can be increased again, if it make sense i mean is seems odd the amount in two years is 10 thousand plus i have real questions about the cancelation retaliatory job commissions does that commission have the authority to do that overruling civil service that is an interesting question to me i don't know if you got advice on that i'll appreciate the rest of points in here i think there is a section - sorry just one more if i could the notice of whistle blower protections in e and 4.115 i believe requires the controller to post the notices not require they're an employee handbook that seems like a good
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place and finally the ethics commission i think a handbook would be okay and equal time to run over mr. pelham. >> e mr. pilpal. >> i was line i when i was 23 i ran away to the army against my mothers advise they said i was gay you know don't ask no tell so at the end of the boat camp i sweated it knowing i didn't have upper body strength on adrian that get me through those camps so i won't have to repeat 8 more weeks of hell my mother flew out to see me graduate any drill sergeant told
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her he may not make a good soldier the army but by god hesitate tenacious i'm back tenacious is helen this whole issue of free speech right. how much judges to point out to you that four dot one one 5 a hesitate your regulation needs a facelift rue paul would note it needs a facelift i'm going to repeat myself because i'm tenacious why should my next door neighbor have protections under the first amendment right but when i become a city employee i lose it
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is that what the bifurcating is all about once you're a city employee you start losing protections under the bifurcating bill of rights under the constitution. >> you need to find our wholeness whether you have them or not you need to recommend to the board of sups that they add first amendment free speech rights and tie retaliation protections for city employees otherwise you will be over thank you for the opportunity e turning or our founding father in the bill of rights it is okay to stipulate the employees of first amendment is that
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something you want to do to our grandchildren commissioner is that what we do the avenues why would you not give city employees first amendment protections because in their bad people earning a pension it is sufficient to take away their first amendment rights give me a break. >> good evening, commissioners and director pelham friends of ethics i have one comment first of all, thank you very much a lot of hard work has gone into this i thank you all but the one thing the section 4.120 to 23 confidentiality that i don't see one of the biggest
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problems on i discovered when i chaired the committee for the whistle blower program back in 2010 and 2011 other than the civil grand jury when the whistle blowers would try to find out the status of their complaint they were kept in the dark using confidentiality as the weapon to keep them ignorant of what is going on with their whistle blower complaint i don't see anything in here that might give them information whether it is thirty days, 60 days but dr occurrings complaint wu were used as a ping-pong ball between the controller's office and this body i know that things are
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moving forward to improve i wonder i may have missed it if a whistle blower were to try to find out what the status of their complaint was they're entitled to know that thank you. >> we address it in the rags. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government i left hand to these conversations and could have scorn if you send something to the board of supervisors they choose not to respond end of story and very frankly given the efforts from the members of the public have tried to get them to do things that is likely what. happen. >> you're happy the executive director as sitting here oh, let's find a way out not have a conversation to respond to us
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let's sends this over if necessary keep it for 5 or 10 years or don't bother to respond that's what we wanted you don't really care about in whistle blower thing because if so none of you that will be in that position you don't care, he can stand here and say eave never helped a whistle blower you don't care i can stand here and say your historical and practice show that you have absolutely no interest in protecting maintain but the city and the city employees and the elected officials and you can sit here and go through this charge raid that's all it is a charge rad you send documents into the netherlands and hope a member of the public
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again didn't found how ineffective you are willful ignorance is with your willfully ignorant of those processes you were willing to send is it to the board of supervisors and just sort let that hang out there i think you're all hoping to god our term of office is over before you it exams doss honestly i don't think anyone one of you want to deal with anything and certainly anything that protects a city employee that blew the whistle you wanted to protect the city departments from being discovered it illegal actions we talked about ed lee he's been found by a federal investigation to have people under had his control and
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command engage in illegal activities on his behalf you don't think an audit of his campaign is even worth consideration you are the total slaves of the people who appointed you and the only thing you're interested in not putting their noticed out of joint and want to get our backside in at a hair on a commission. >> thank you. >> commissioner keane was trying to get me to declare a recess and stepped out - i'm prepared to call the question do we have a motion -
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>> one thing that mr. pilpal raised that about contractor i think maybe that is something ms. pelham maybe that is something raised addressed by regulation we do get this implemented but sounds like you may have a suggestion. >> mr. pilpal question about the different phrasing under the section 41 hundred is certainly language that needs to evolve a definition to distinguish behind that language in 41 hundred start on line 17 we'll find that the charter protects those including contractors, operating within the scope of a contract so the protection is to those operating within the scope of a contract with the city and county then when you read section one 05 this speaks to improper
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government activity so it uses the phrase with regards to the contracts when someone files a complaint alleging improper activity by somebody use the language operating employer contractors operating pursuant to the city and county uses instead of operating within the scroll but pursuant to the contractor presumably didn't involve improper government activity it could be lost and tweaked as we go forward but a conscious decision those were different things. >> mr. pilpal i feel better i asked the same question. >> how about the insertion of word employee. >> again, i should defer to the executive director but starting to get word i didn't you have employee right before
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the contractor and so you know hopefully that is something we can address by regulation i will agree that is the intent as i understood to include the individual that work as a contractor or work for the employee or employer that is a xrashth not just the entity themselves. >> i'll call the question >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> opposed? that motion carries. >> unanimously. >> all right. turning to item number 6. >> item 7. >> item 7 discussion and possible action on items for future meeting are there any suggestions?
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commissioner keane >> commissioner chair some hopefully, we will recall that last year you appointed me as a committee of one to try and rewrite prop j that was pretty much taken out by the board of supervisors pursuant to that we comp came out with one ballot for last year and prop c went i have with the help of the friends of ethics and the grand jury a proposed draft of restoration of prop j that i will be submitting to you mr. chair just by mail by e-mail within the next few days with copies it ms. pelham and the city attorney for vetting to
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begin the process it is urban likely given what we saw last year that since there is so much involved we'll be able to do anything for the ballot this year if possible it is unlikely i want to get that process started that has been rewritten to i'll be send that to the 3 of you one the next week or so and so hopefully at some point we'll get the vetting of that. >> i want to thank the friends of ethics and also the members of civil grand jury for the help on that they were great in terms of they're the writing of it and also in particular - >> any other suggestions for additions to the agenda? public comment or suggestions
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>> yes. charley our friends of ethics i'll recommend that you might want to put the audit item on the agenda whether that is next month or the months after whatever the time it facilities for the staff to develop some thoughts and some proposals maybe to bring forward i really would at this point look for public hearing on that topic to see where the public thinks the commission could be more robust in its approach where it needs to be more robust in its approach and i would like to recommend at some point look at when you plaza plaza place the measure on the ballot anything we place on the ballot should have an issuance off finding to show how that measurer up and how we can,
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in fact, meet the specifications as addressed by the law that is that it has a further the purposes of the act because heretofore many of the items that we taken to the ballots or taken to the board under super majority we're less on and on the effects of the acts they were repeatedly sections of the law and now we're clean power a little bit with prop c and maybe prop j and those are not the only problems we've had so there needs to be finding when you modify the c or any of the other ethics laws regarding conflict of interest where we have to demonstrate how it does, in fact, further the
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purposes of the act that is very important. >> thank you. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government and i agree with the prior speaker that is the perfect opportunity to put up or shut up you have the procedures of fair notice and so put it on the agendas for the next time consideration as to whether a special audit to be ordered by mayor ed lee ed lee for mayor of 2015 on as acted as a special audit now you said you know either nothing or you sat there and - all those things here's a perfect place to put that not two surprisingly this is the only item i approved gives an
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opportunity underlined for any member of the commission to place the items on the agenda for consideration i do wonder if someone will choose to exercise the opportunity and whether they will be allowed to place the item other than the agenda or you'll vote not to do it as far as the public is able to understand the agenda are formatted in square feet by the chair and staff in some cases to hide the cases from the public for my experience the leadership of the ethics commission operates outside of the public view we hear on this what the executive director cares to tell us and we never hear anything bad there are never any problems nothing needs to be fixed everything is fine and end of story whether the members of this commission
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individually or collectively choose to dare quote bite the hand that feeds them unquote only time will tell microfilm i think of the history of this commission to indicate along with the probability this will happen you are here to protect the city against us you are here to energy them to do whatever we want with regards to the law and the recollections to fairness and to quality to anything and the reason i say that you never do anything otherwise and let them off the hook even after you went through what you did this donor mat with the supervisor farrell what it comes down to authorize the chair to go back and make a back room
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diesel e deal bans god, only knows what the public still didn't know why it was on that agenda you know that. >> thank you dipped the next is the information of enlightenments that occurs to me whether the matter and the mark farrell matter that came up there hadn't been any closed sessions in the last few months to discuss pend complaints and i seem to recall i'm not sure there were matters that were held over at the end of last year pending the staffer transition so i'll thinking there maybe pending complaints that maybe processed or presented in open or possibly
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closed session that would be in his to reduce the backlog so in terms of items for future agenda that there are scompliement items to be scheduled that would or will be good and discussion of overhauling the enforcement program with different letters to complainants notifying them something is received and i thought that was a package that the acting director had but not to the point of getting out there i hope that comes to you in the time the next few meetings i think that would be to the good unfortunately might be a reviewer e r referral from the task force we'll see i'll count those at comments on the next item which is the
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executive director's report. >> just a couple of brief highlights the report goes into budget and staff reach and other activities ongoing the office we have been continued to provide information to the mayor's office about the budget requests we are present this friday before the commission on the department of technology about the electronic filing project we've submitted a request for and two helpful notes a 3 additional as needed part time staff resources coming on board hopefully within the next week individuals that share quantity of two ftes because the election seen e.r. season a ramping up with our fingers crossed seeing the additional staffing through june 30th want fiscal year
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funding the budget and separately i'm pleased to announce we'll encourage you to chair the denouncement u announcement of the job announcement for the deputy the deadline for applications is april 22nd i'm excited to look forward to that processed in bringing someone into the office to help in that capacity the audit process one question that came up the audit from the last election cycle the pre2015 as of mid month those are in sprfrl review and looking forward to having those out the door the cuomo or so and lastly as a reminder april 1st deadline for statements of economic interest
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is due this friday elected officials and department heads are required under the city recollections to file online using a clean statement of filing system and we have stiff ready to assist with needs so as of today i believe we're at 49.29 percent filing electronically half of that electronic filing community to get them across the finish line by april 1st i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> we've been reminding folks to help to assist in full compliance. >> is there a place for the public can see the job description or - >> how the duties of deputy director are skiebd and the easiest place good morning san francisco city jobs you'll land
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on the employment opportunities may be one the featured positions but if not search in the administration department it is the city director and the position was list on friday the job apps page but the employment opportunity page is city of san francisco. >> any comments or questions. >> mc in response to the deputy directors report. >> embraced by the job she's moved into this position seem lessly so well and picking up on american people enormous number of things much from her experience in los angeles she's someone that is part of fabric of doing this job so well, that i'm just feel we are fortunate i want to emphasize that on top of
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that her report that you're pretty impressive thank you. >> thank you. >> public comment. >> you had our chance mr. mr. pilpal. >> you'll get us in big trouble. >> you talked about the executive director's report. >> i registered or referenced in place for future agendas that recent clever of me. >> you're a good lawyer. >> i'm not a lawyer. >> you should be. >> i'll try to be brief dipped as an individual two items again related to future items their used to be a chart we see ever foe months it deciphers from the indicator and policy issues and all that could be made a regularly attachment then i'll not to have it is a this we'll
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know what is the out months and the other points on the revenues report that shows that the receptors are way above the budgeted amount i think that money into goes 0 both the general fund but the with mayor's office to recapture that as needed staff or on the initiative for the rest of the purposes it would be nice for whatever reason we'll have more lobbyist recorded and it would be nice if those resources are small the grand scheme for the city but large for the commission if it could help with the staffing needs thanks. >> thank you. >> commissioners ray hart for san francisco open government since a couple of things were bought up i feel they're fair game commissioners comments to
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the executive director what a great job what a until i try to start talking with her and she fails to get back but to fail to let you know she needs for time they can't be taken at her word that is a basic fault with anyone that is in office of public trust i will comment on two items on the executive director's report the first item 5 investigation of enforcement program that almost always shows zero sunshine ordinance compliments i have 24 denominators finding people violated any freedom and not one only the one you managed to hold awhile i was out of the state that was contrived by your staff it couldn't have
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accidently happened they announced it the day i left and held the hearing a day before i getting got back you have no pride and not say a word i intend that the number of sunshine ordinance complaints will grow i'll turn p them in writing i do not trust the executive director to not buyer them and the staff two of the inspectors and these are the people i'm popped to trust to investigate the complaint in an impartial way and the second item 7 the bureaucracy of diligent revenue account you're showing the willingness to take people to court for 5 thousand dollars and mark farrell for supervisor 2010 owing more than one and $90,000 dealing that is
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a matter avenue backroom deal that ethics commission authorized commissioner renne to deal with that unquote using the power combrufd you by san franciscans you have decided to abuse that power by going after the little fish and please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones, kate the whales it is little surprises that few people attend those it is nauseating to watch the abuse of power if you think that tonight is an exception stand by in a few summaries there the record and two or three years i can point out i told him some go that i am moral and unlawful and illegal they ignored it thank you. thank you for speaking immediately when that my time
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rotundas out you're the most unfair person have to have the appearance of being fair >> you don't even try it is a big joke. >> next item is approval of the minutes draft minutes for january 25th, 2016, and february 19, 2016, commissioners have any comments or suggested changes. >> move approval. >> second. >> any public comment? >> this public comment on, on the fact those minutes our 0 january 25th meeting the agenda item was not clear to the members of committee and as i've said before it is supposed to be
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clear to the public of average twinkies or could be complicated having a bunch of documents failing to say what those documents are on there is outrage over members found it was unacceptable in i like to hide things to do it in a way that people won't know what is considered and very frankly, i think that it goes down to the leadership is why he spoke against the commissioner been restate he wants to side thing the executive director want to do things behind even though scenes and hide from the public i think the reason commissioner hur is in office he's the biggest sneak of all benedict. >> huh? >> benedict. >> benedict arnold works for
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me but the bottom line is i'm gotten sick of it and gotten disappointed by the fact when i first started to come to the meeting there were 50 or 60 people now, maybe a dozen it is because thankful give up they don't build you have any intention to make anything or support it you can smile commissioner hur but you can that is the truth and you don't say anything a back it is true you can look at our record what has this body done to make that city a better place nothing you try to make it look that way you write the history well, no more i have 12 hundred words in our anybody's probably more than you give me
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me for power than any of you have i would be pubically embassy want to would this term to get something meaningful done rather than having two or three terms and get nothing done make in change for the better rerearranging chairs on the deck of the titanic and simply rewrite the rules you know in our heart and soul you have absolutely no ability or willingly njs or integrity to enforce i can't think avenue simply person who is punished by you in all the time i've been coming here that would have any effect on city government. >> now you've sat down thank you. >> did he hear a motion to adjourn no, we have the got to
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approval the minutes as outstanding motion to approve the minutes which was seconded. >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> opposed? they're approved 5 zero i'm entertain a motion to adjourn. >> so moved and second. >> all in favor, say i. >> thank you to her for althou we get to do today. today
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together through the years. so, thank you. give ourselves a hand. >>[applause] >> so, yesterday i had a great opportunity to talk to jt. is he here. he may not be here. we are working with-optical and as you know i got the most essential things we give out. some of you may even have heard the story that i told about being a child not having glasses. we didn't have money to pay for glasses. my parents took me from church, 2 different places, to try to get free glasses and by the time we got there the place would be closed with av out. we missed him by this bus stop. my mom was crying we do not hope to get me glasses to go to school and a woman walked up and paid for me to get classes from fred meyer. that changed my life and been a bad student to being somebody who then had opportunities to rise and be
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the person i am today. that's what you guys are doing here today. you are being a person who was to me. you get to be that friend today and i want to thank you. there is one or 2 things that dr. me nuts about working in this field. there is a misnomer and a stigma that probably a lot of people here, and when you tell people today they spent the day working with the homeless, people are then ask you some questions. there's 2 misnomers i really want to address what i was talking to jt at sea salt one of our new partners. i was saying to him, i love your idea that they understand there's a difference between street behavior in people expensing homelessness, and then, secondly, i love that they understood that people sleeping on our street and the people sleeping in our shelters are our community. we believe that it's the build of streams sometimes a little services that people figured that's not accurate. 70-80% of people
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outside our brothers and sisters. their san franciscans. another 10% come from somewhere in the state and so they can't just look at them and say we don't need to. we truly are community. when you go home, pass that around. let people know these are our brothers and sisters and when you change the way we look, when we change that stigma, we are able to change the way we view people who need help. i am also asking what makes san francisco so special that we are able to not only phd we do our best practices in the country, but several other best practices like the navigation center, like hamilton house,. i could list the many wonderful organizations like hospitality, all those great organizations. that we have. the city. the reason we have them is because the city cares. with the coming of i laugh as i watched silk and dolly have you seen that
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show and tech can change almost become a tech can change the world. well actually counseling intact who i really think can really take a step at ending homelessness. while met her about 2 years ago but her name is rose broome. she came to me with this idea and since then has spread this idea of handout. spread this idea which i'll let her talk about. since then she's been awarded as entrepreneur and innovator she's been is been replicated it over to an $50,000 have gone to her agency to give directly to participants for housing for things like healthcare, things that they need to first and last months payment. those type of things we would have able to get elsewhere. it through for her innovation in technologies and that's what makes san francisco so great. none of us sit back and say we don't know what to get we all try. thank
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you for being here today in trying to want to introduce you to somebody has never given up and really believes that technology has a place in changing homelessness. my good friend rose broome, executive director of hand up. >>[applause] >> hey, everyone. i'm so excited to be here with you this morning to share the story of hand up and also to share the story of innervation that we all see her in san francisco. so, about 3 years ago walking down the street i had been experiencing seeing a woman sleeping on the sidewalk and this is something that so familiar to all of us. i asked myself, why and why there wasn't an easier way to give and to help my homeless neighbor. i took that idea and started talking with friends in the community and got introduced to carrot at project homeless connect. i share the idea with her, and she said let's try it. i had no idea at
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the time what an incredible and rare opportunity and openness she had and a project homeless connect had to try new things and getting new models off the ground. just the phc model itself has not been replicated in to inner cities across the country. so she said let's give it a try. and a few months later we launched handout right here at the project homeless connect event and now we have raised over $1 million in donations directly for homeless neighbors. we are in 5 states. we have 25 nonprofits are using hand up and it's all because tara, project homeless connect, and san francisco was open to trying something new, to use technology in a new way and to create something from scratch,
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try it out and watch it in the community. thank you. >>[applause] >> all of you are here because you care, and you have to keep showing up. we have to keep on innovating. we have to bring our friends and we have 2 and homelessness and san francisco. >>[applause] >> i just want to finish by saying thank you to carrot to the mayor, to all of the human service organizations that come here and work in collaboration, and to this incredible event that we all put on together to help care for our neighbors and to help create a better san francisco. thank you. >>[applause]
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>> auto you a little more about canada. and up with you donate directly to specific homeless neighbors in your community. on our website and up.word. we also help nonprofit human service organizations raise money for their own organization causes and track all of that in our software. you can see who you are helping cope with your donation will, what your impact was. so if you want to be with to help a specific neighbor on our site or a specific agency that you care about, you can go to our site, canned up.word and help them directly. thanks, everyone. >>[applause] >> the next person is one my favorite parts of my job. introducing mayor lee. it's exciting to me a 2nd to say why it's so exciting. just because he does because he's the mayor but because he really believes that we can and homelessness and
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he is invested as you guys have seen with a west coast mayors to do although we can do to put a change an end to suffering on our streets. that's what is why to me being able to introduce this man is the greatest honor. thank you mayor lee for all you do for san francisco. thank you. >>[applause] >> mayor lee: thank you, carol, for all the work and leadership you do. those, and handout, thank you very much. give another hand for hand off. >>[applause] >> mayor lee: beautiful people here. volunteers of san francisco. thank you and welcome to the 62nd-almost close to my age-62nd gathering of our project homeless connect. it's one of its wonderful to see all be here today to represent your humanity . your love for each other. your support for people who need help, but most
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importantly, the way we do things in san francisco is the way answer for any complicated problem like homelessness is to come together, to share resources, ideas and not try to block each other's ideas out and to try to do something that has an overall goal. so, you know, as the mayor of this wonderful city, i've had to think through many long hours and a lot of conversations with people and try not to just react to the motion. some people tell me on a daily basis, why doesn't that homeless person just go away from in front of me? how, it has to happen? what is going on here breed how come you're not doing anything about it? as if, the mayor could snap his or her fingers and homelessness will go away. well, those of you who are volunteering today, those of you who are been part of 62
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sessions, those of you who are working with us are realizing how complicated homelessness is, and that how easy that one could slip into homelessness in a extensive city like san francisco. it is happening in so many other cities and we have to be cognizant of it. what i have learned is that everything has got to work in the city in order to answer the challenge of homelessness, but also prevent it from happening. that's why you see me working with libby shaft on raising the minimum wage across the state of california because having good pay prevent a lot of people from being homelessness. that's why you have been working with the supervisors in so many community groups that evictions from rent-controlled
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housing in san francisco. that's another thing that we have to do. that's why we spend money doping rehabbing, inventing the building more housing like we haven't done for decades. we are doing it now. forgetting to a pace. we are asking developers must do more. we are doing more in our private sectors and while we do all these things have the ultimate goal of building more affordable housing and getting more opportunities there, and having people have good jobs, and stabilizing the neighborhood's, the people being on the street need our help on an immediate and on a transitional basis, and permanent exit. this is why project homelessness is so valuable because in many instances, these are the first batch is for people that quite frankly, not a lot of people
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are like rose and others who walk by and say, hey i want to help that person. a lot of people walk by and they just walked by. we accept its. then we begin that barrier in her mind saying somebody else's problem. homelessness is everybody's challenge. we have to have everybody working on it. that's why i say, thank you to all of you for coming together on this day because the project homeless day and project homeless and every day homelessness projects that we have now gathered together, not just volunteers, but our experts from her health apartment, human services department of our social services department, our hot teens that sam dodge and devin used up help lead to get people into transitional homes like the navigation centers like shoulders were trying to improve, like the watching we have ed here are 80 and putting on an everyday basis and today
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i get to announce that because of your help, because of the problems you help us identify it deeper into and the solutions you're coming up with an everybody's idea is welcome in this challenge of our homelessness, that today we are announcing another navigation center opening in san francisco. yes. another 93 units of housing that's going to be for the next 2-maybe 3 years another navigation center on market street and we done all the outreach. we've worked with the plumbers union of a trust fund that owns the building and is kind of a rundown hotel for many years admittedly and what we've done we are working with the community housing partnerships to manage the entire building with city funds through the nonprofit and in the partnership we are creating the 2nd of our very successful
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navigation centers. have you ever had a chance to visit our navigation center at 16th? get down there if you want to see what we'll hope is because were putting everything that we can possibly think is best models into our navigation center. that is a center where you've got all the services they are on the 20 or 7 basis. that workpiece managing all the issues that were bringing in people good that we have a welcome atmosphere that people want to go to a bar navigation centers because not only will they be treated humanely like people should be, but at the end of the navigation center his permanent housing. this is what we promised in all of our navigation sense. it's what we should be doing every shelter, right? yes. we should have and and goal for everyone. that
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navigation center as we open them up, we are not just warehousing people. we are not just putting them in a place that they just sit there and don't do anything. we are trying to help them gather their lives, build friendships, reconnect with their families. get the public health that they need good get the services that support they need. great the system of support for people just like you would do even if you are not homelessness could when i moved to my neighborhood, you know, i try to make friends with people, get a support system in which is anything could happen wherever you live, and everybody needs friends. they need relationships. they need our local kidneys can support them and this is what we're doing for people that are homeless. they're ordinary people. someone lost a job. someone got evicted. someone who came here and had great dreams like many of you do and fell on hard times. it causes it. what complicates it and overlook all learning if you're on the streets too long then mental issues start appearing. maybe
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some medication, some habits start forming. maybe you get together with people you didn't know and all of a sudden they're not as friends you thought they would be. all of this happens in real life. it happens on our streets. we recognize it. that's why we're developing this model of navigation centers to answer that to bring people hope to give them a comfortable environment and to give them a supportive environment and to give them a successful environments. that's what all of you are about. you're although creating that environment of people, helping each other, and that's why organizations like hand up are so valuable. in all the different tech companies, corporations that come and be part of the project homeless connect personal bible because it brings us together in this humanity focused way. so, what did you more of that. this navigation center is 93. this whilst i have 2 announce?
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today, 200 additional permanent units of housing for formerly homeless this are being est. as a result of this. >>[applause] >> mayor yee: when you have a few thousand people then you kind of say, that doesn't answer. again, answering homelessness you got to do it on a block by dr. places. that maybe 100 units at a time. these things can be done overnight. no one promises to answer homelessness overnight but our dedication is real. it is human focus. it's not moving people from corner to corner. it's really celebrating life and making sure we embrace the lives of the people that were taking care of. i commit to you, as long as i am mayor, i put up 1000 people off the streets permanently. that's what we are going to do as a city. are you going to join me on that? all right. how about the new department to an
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homelessness for 8000 people, consolidating that getting a vision sees, getting the commitments on an everyday business ending homelessness for a woman, for a family, for somebody who is a veteran or anyone who might have any challenges in their life. drugs were psychiatric issues, we are going to help them get that help them in permanent housing and i were going to be able with its bonding june to have a facility at sf general hospital site, one of the greatest hospitals in the world. they're going to have a site to help eagle with her psychiatric challenges that we should be having. not to close him down like tacit and past administrations have done. we need support for people who do confront themselves with a mental illness challenges that oftentimes living on the streets for years will create. so, i wanted this opportunity to tell you this city is on the move to help people could we've
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always been the city of st. francis. you fulfill that by being here today and be a part of it. i want to say, thank you, thank you, and thank you divide more time i would do that 62 times to celebrate people coming together the spirit in which you do it, the spirit of san francisco. thank you for being volunteers. thank you for being the greatest san franciscans in the world. >>[applause] as a society we've basically failed big portion of our population if you think about the basics of food, shelter safety a lot of people don't have any
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of those i'm mr. cookie can't speak for all the things but i know say, i have ideas how we can address the food issue. >> open the door and walk through that don't just stand looking out. >> as they grew up in in a how would that had access to good food and our parent cooked this is how you feed yours this is not happening in our country this is a huge pleasure i'm david one of the co-founder so about four year ago we worked with the serviced and got to know the kid one of the things we figured out was that they didn't know how to cook. >> i heard about the cooking school through the larkin academy a.
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>> their noting no way to feed themselves so they're eating a lot of fast food and i usually eat whatever safeway is near my home a lot of hot food i was excited that i was eating lunch enough instead of what and eat. >> as i was inviting them over teaching them basic ways to fix good food they were so existed. >> particle learning the skills and the food they were really go it it turned into the is charity foundation i ran into my friend we were talking about this this do you want to run this charity foundations and she said, yes. >> i'm a co-found and executive director for the cooking project
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our best classes participation for 10 students are monday they're really fun their chief driven classes we have a different guest around the city they're our stand alone cola's we had a series or series still city of attorney's office style of classes our final are night life diners. >> santa barbara shall comes in and helps us show us things and this is one the owners they help us to socialize and i've been here about a year. >> we want to be sure to serve as many as we can. >> the san francisco cooking school is an amazing amazing partner. >> it is doing that in that space really elevates the space for the kids special for the
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chief that make it easy for them to come and it really makes the experience pretty special. >> i'm sutro sue set i'm a chief 2, 3, 4 san francisco. >> that's what those classes afford me the opportunity it breakdown the barriers and is this is not scary this is our choice about you many times this is a feel good what it is that you give them is an opportunity you have to make it seem like it's there for them for the taking show them it is their and they can do that. >> hi, i'm antonio the chief in san francisco. >> the majority of kids at that age in order to get them into food they need to see something simple and the evidence will
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show and easy to produce i want to make sure that people can do it with a bowl and spoon and burner and one pan. >> i like is the receipts that are simple and not feel like it's a burden to make foods the cohesives show something eased. >> i go for vera toilet so someone can't do it or its way out of their range we only use 6 ingredients i can afford 6 ingredient what good is showing you them something they can't use but the sovereignties what are you going to do more me you're no successful. >> we made a vegetable stir-fry
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indicators he'd ginger and onion that is really affordable how to balance it was easy to make the food we present i loved it if i having had access to a kitchen i'd cook more. >> some of us have never had a kitchen not taught how to cookie wasn't taught how to cook. >> i have a great appreciation for programs that teach kids food and cooking it is one of the healthiest positive things you can communicate to people that are very young. >> the more programs like the cooking project in general that can have a positive impact how our kids eat is really, really important i believe that everybody should
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venting to utilize the kitchen and meet other kids their age to identify they're not alone and their ways in which to pick yours up and move forward that. >> it is really important to me the opportunity exists and so i do everything in my power to keep it that. >> we'll have our new headquarters in the heart of the tenderloin at taylor and kushlg at the end of this summer 2014 we're really excited. >> a lot of the of the conditions in san francisco they have in the rest of the country so our goal to 257bd or expand out of the san francisco in los angeles and then after that who know. >> we'd never want to tell people want to do or eat only provide the skills and the tools
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in case that's something people are 2rrd in doing. >> you can't buy a box of psyche you have to put them in the right vein and direction with the right kids with a right place address time those kids don't have this you have to instill they can do it they're good enough now to finding out figure out and find the future for >> hi. welcome to san francisco. stay safe and exploring how you can stay in your home safely after an earthquake. let's look at common earthquake myths. >> we are here at the urban
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center on mission street in san francisco. we have 3 guest today. we have david constructional engineer and bill harvey. i want to talk about urban myths. what do you think about earthquakes, can you tell if they are coming in advance? >> he's sleeping during those earthquakes? >> have you noticed him take any special? >> no. he sleeps right through them. there is no truth that i'm aware of with harvey that dogs are aware of an impending earthquake. >> you hear the myth all the time. suppose the dog helps you get up, is it going to help you do something >> i hear they are aware of small vibrations. but yes, i
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read extensively that dogs cannot realize earthquakes. >> today is a spectacular day in san francisco and sometimes people would say this is earthquake weather. is this earthquake weather? >> no. not that i have heard of. no such thing. >> there is no such thing. >> we are talking about the weather in a daily or weekly cycle. there is no relationship. i have heard it's hot or cold weather or rain. i'm not sure which is the myth. >> how about time of day? >> yes. it happens when it's least convenient. when it happens people say we were lucky and when they don't. it's terrible timing. it's never a good time for an earthquake.
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>> but we are going to have one. >> how about the ground swallowing people into the ground? >> like the earth that collapsed? it's not like the tv shows. >> the earth does move and it bumps up and you get a ground fracture but it's not something that opens up and sucks you up into haddes. >> it's not going anywhere. we are going to have a lot of damage, but this myth that california is going to the ocean is not real.
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>> southern california is moving north. it's coming up from the south to the north. >> you would have to invest the million year cycle, not weeks or years. maybe millions of years from now, part of los angeles will be in the bay area. >> for better or worse. >> yes. >> this is a tough question. >> those other ones weren't tough. >> this is a really easy challenge. are the smaller ones less stress? >> yes. the amount released in small earthquakes is that they are so small in you need many of those. >> i think would you probably have to have maybe hundreds of magnitude earthquakes of 4.7.
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>> so small earthquakes are not making our lives better in the future? >> not anyway that you can count on. >> i have heard that buildings in san francisco are on rollers and isolated? >> it's not true. it's a conventional foundation like almost all the circumstances buildings in san francisco. >> the trans-america was built way before. it's a pretty conventional foundation design. >> i have heard about this thing called the triangle of life and up you are supposed to go to the edge of your bed to save yourself. is there anything of value to that ? >> yes, if you are in your room. you should drop, cover
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and hold onto something. if you are in school, same thing, kitchen same thing. if you happen to be in your bed, and you rollover your bed, it's not a bad place to be. >> the reality is when we have a major earthquake the ground shaking so pronounced that you are not going to be able to get up and go anywhere. you are pretty much staying where you are when that earthquake hits. you are not going to be able to stand up and run with gravity. >> you want to get under the door frame but you are not moving to great distances. >> where can i buy a richter scale? >> mr. richter is selling it. we are going to put a plug in for cold hardware. they are not available. it's a rather complex. >> in fact we don't even use the richter scale anymore. we
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use a moment magnitude. the richter scale was early technology. >> probably a myth that i hear most often is my building is just fine in the loma prieta earthquake so everything is fine. is that true ? >> loma prieta was different. the ground acceleration here was quite moderate and the duration was moderate. so anyone that believes they survived a big earthquake and their building has been tested is sadly mistaken. >> we are planning for the bigger earthquake closer to san francisco and a fault totally independent. >> much stronr than the loma prieta earthquake. >> so people who were here in
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'89 they should say 3 times as strong and twice as long and that will give them more of an occasion of the earthquake we would have. 10 percent isn't really the threshold of damage. when you triple it you cross that line. it's much more damage in earthquake. >> i want to thank you, harvey, thanks pat for >> the regular meeting of the sdrufks instead of is called to order roll call vote roll call ms. fewer ms. mendoza-mcdonnell dr. murase ms. norton mr. walton ms. wynns