>> first the use of force logs. the only two papers we have had the police report which is the officer's narrative that describes the situation and sort of a one sheet of paper, and it doesn't give us any information how it was used, why it was used, what other steps were taken before this force was used; it only gives you -- the only information that is tracked and that's required by the officer is their name, their sort of -- their back number, the date, time, and sort of what the use of force was. but we need more information. we need background information as to how we got there because it's not until we look at how we got there that we can understand how we fix it. because if we don't know how we got there, then how do we implement a policy that's going to fix it? >> supervisor safai: next, what other areas? >> i think that one of the key critical issues that may be coming up is vetting a new

police chief. i think police chief scott -- i think chief scott has done an exceptional job here in frisan francisco, and i hope he doesn't leave. being part of the lead program, i was able to see how he was very fair, and he listened when we addressed our concerns with him that his subordinates were sort of buying into the lead program which i think will be beneficial to san francisco. and i think that's important to have in a chief, and we need someone to -- that can do that. >> supervisor safai: is there another area that you wanted to touch on? >> i think those were the -- sort of highlights we have. >> great. so we'll get to the questions now. >> okay. >> supervisor safai: supervisor cohen, would you like to start? >> supervisor cohen: yes. okay. a couple of things that came to my mind when you were telling your story. talk about growing up in rural california and how that experience would lend itself to

you being a member on the -- on the police commission? >> i think that growing up in that kind of community, you have a sort of fear of the lice, and i don't knowhee itomes from or why it's there, but you have it. and i think that it was a poor community and you saw instances where police officers abused their power, and it was a very different power dynamic because no one's going to believe someone other than a police officer. i also remember back at that time, there weren't protections for workers' rights like there are now, and i remember going with my parents to change down my father's paycheck when he had worked a full day in the fields, and so these are things that i think ground me and allow me to relate to my community and understand sort of the power dynamic and why people are scared of the

police, even though there's sort of no specific reason you can pinpoint to articulate, it's just a fear that you have. and it's one of the things that allows me to sort of strive to understand -- by understanding the situation and other people's perspectives helps me understand mysendes me feel more at ease. and i think being in the lead program was a great example of that because i was able to shadow these police officers and really see firsthand exactly all of the facets of their job rather than just one when i see them in court and they're on the stand, and i have to cross-examine them. >> supervisor cohen: in an effort to complete my full due diligence on everyone, not just you, i came across a couple of articles that you published. >> i haven't published -- >> supervisor cohen: i interpreted that you wrote

them, but you were mentioned in the articles. do you recall in. >> there's been a lot of articles. some of them have been around the cases that i've handled. one of them that sort of pops up frequently was an instance where this gentleman was in the castro and he was part of the nudist movement and he was charged with indecent exposure, and he was in front of the citibank building, looking in the window, and adjusting himself so he could be a part of the nudist movement. a couple of witnesses thought he was doing something else, and they went and reported it, yet there were no other witnesses that could confirm this corroboration. turns out my client was in front of citibank, and he wanted to be part of the nudist movement. he had a scar, and he was

conscious of his scar, and he was trying to rig the shirt around his private area with a binder clip so that it would cover the scar but so that he could participate in the nudist movement in the castro, so that's one article that came up. another article that may have came up was the julian hotel situation which was in 2011, where one of my clients had -- was arrested on an offense, and it was alleged -- and he indicated -- he said that the police officers had taken items from his hotel room: a laptop and a camera, and we -- i investigated that, and come to find out, there was video which showed that, and so that was in the news as well. >> supervisor cohen: so one of the things that i'm thinking about that's critical when a person is on the police commission is that a bern have a baseline understanding of how investigations are conducted.

can you tell us some of the basic principles when you're putting together an investigation, what are the basic principles that you use to conduct an investigation? and the reason why i'm asking this question is because in closed session as well as quite possibenp session, you will hear talk and discussion about an investigation, and i need someone to be able to hear and think critically as to whether -- as to whether or not all the i's were dotted, all the t's were crossed, if proper protocol was followed. so can you talk to -- can you walk me through a little bit about your thinking and your approach. >> so when i investigate a case, the first place i start with is talking to my client, because i need to know what happened. and usually in the criminal justice arena as a public defender, we come in after the fact, after the person's been arrested and an investigation has already been done, so we're sort of playing catch up and then moving forward. i talked to my client and i ask them what exactly happened, and

i get their story. i get people who know them and know where they come from and know what they're about and get their information, as well. i then -- i go out to the scene because i think it's very important to vlizend get a sense of where this happened and what happened because when you read police reports there, you don't really get an understanding of what exactly the police officer is saying or how things may have transpired or maybe could not have -- or could not have happened in the police report because when you go out to the scene, and you see that is just not possible, like, what he or she is describing is not possible, and i think for me as an investigative tool, to do that. i then collect my investigative team, and i say look, these are the issues, this is what we need to investigate. i need you to go out there and talk to this person, that person, find out what happened; see who witnessed it, what they saw. are there any cameras around? did anyone get it on video?

what are they witnesses saying? where were they when they saw this? why are they saying what they're saying? so i question sort of every single step, and i want to know as much information as i can because then i can compile it and sort of see the big picture. another area of that is i have to look at it from a lens of okay, this is what we have, and how is this going to help us? or what are the areas that are going to hurt us, and i try to find information out on those specific areas to try and alleviate those situations and concerns. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. you've had an opportunity to listen to every speaker. you've had an opportunity to get all of my questions. >> there were some good ones. you have a difficult decision. there's some really great candidates there. >> supervisor cohen: yeah, i can appreciate that. that leads me to my next question. how would you distinguish

yourself not from the members of the police commission, but from those candidates that you've heard from today? >> distinguish myself? well, i can tell you that i have a passion, and i'm relentless, and i don't give up easily. i have experience in sort of what this role entails. when i read a police report, i can read the jargon and know what they're saying or not saying. i also have experience in talking to the community and finding out what exactly happened through their lens. when you get a story, there's so many sides, and it does depend on the lens that you're viewing it in. i have that experience. i also have experience in administrative hearings and experience in what that process is in terms of what's being done and what needs to be done so that when it is appealed later to the superior court or the appellate court that the record is sufficient for the

judge to rely upon because not only is this going to affect the san francisco court, but the appel artery courlate cours an effect of effectuating different interpretation of laws especially when it comes to the use of police force and diagnosed made by the commission. >> supervisor cohen: here's a question that i have not posed and i want to put to you. can you speak to the unique struggles that our law enforcement -- our law enforcement officers are -- are going through? >> you know, a few things. i think it's fatigue. they're sort of tired of dealing with the same situation every day and not having a result. an example of this -- and i was able to see this working as a lead attorney where you have officer does who are there, dealing with people who are homeless and addicts, and it's like there's no solution because when they come back the next day, the person's still

there, and yet, they're hearing things from the community, they're saying i'm paying your salary. why aren't you getting this homeless man off my stoop. why aren't you arresting the person on the sidewalk shooting up? so i think they're in a very difficult situation because on the one hand, they have this person who is in crisis, and what are they going to do? just lock them up? because that's not the answer, and it's not working and it hasn't been a viable solution for us. on the other end, you have frustrated community members who are saying look, these people are bringing down the property values, they're sort of getting it from all sides, and they're tired, and they want solutions. and i think the solutions that they need need to be based in data and sort of research and things that show that this works, and we know it works because look at the data. >> supervisor cohen: when i was in the resistance, i was

kind of like hey, it's been doing it. it's worked this long. why don't we leave it alone and get along. >> it hasn't been working. locking people up and keeping them in prison hasn't been working. they're not getting -- recidivism rates have not been dropping. we arrest someone and put them in jail, and that's going to fix them from mental illness or drug addiction or whatever they're suffering from. that doesn't work. >> supervisor cohen: put yourself in the shoes of law enforcement. you've done a lot of work there. you're going before the police commission. what would you hope the commissioners would -- and you're represented by your attorney. you're -- you're an officer, you're coming before for a disciplinary action or discussion -- i'm sorry, action. what kind of leadership traits would you be able to

demonstrate -- excuse me. if you were -- if you were an officer and in this position, what would you be looking for? what would you be looking to hear come from the commission? types of questions, lines of questioning, thoughtfulness? >> i'm sorry. to understa so if i'm the police officer and if i'm in front of the commission for disciplina disciplinary position, what do i want to say? >> supervisor cohen: yes. >> i want to see why i'm before them. i was them to give me a platform to explain to them, these are the actions that i took. these are the things that i did, these are the rules that i was bound by and sort of figure out -- and be open to that. and also as an officer, i'd have to explain to the person who was questioning me why deviated from the rule if at all or why i didn't. but to allow me that platform and allow me to sort of, you know, present my case in a fair and impartial way. and after you hear all the

facts, and you ask all the difficult questions, then, you come up with a finding; that you don't go in prejudging me. >> supervisor cohen: my final question is can you describe your experience in leading or participating in a disciplinary hearing. >> i think that my experience in sort of discipline has been one of the examples being, you know, leading a trial team. you have different sort of parts that are critical to sort of achieving the goal of representing the client, and sometimes, some of your teammates don't do what they're supposed to do, and you do have to sort of discipline them or walk them through the issues that are arising not only for yourself or achieving the goal but also for the other team members, and i have had experience with that. i've also, while i was at the public defender's office, was

in charge of the u.s.f. law student racial justice clinic, where we had students come to the public defender's office and work on bail reform. and so issues that arose from some of the things that the students were doing were things that i had to address. >> supervisor cohen: mr. chair, i have no other questions. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. supervisor stefani? >> thank you. thank you for your presentation. with regard to tazers and prop h and if it passes, regardless of what happens, i -- i feel that we are going to absolutely have to make sure that the use of tazers are not abused, and that proper training is in place. and that training is in place in terms of understanding those suffering from a diagnosis of any type of mental illness, and even questioning whether or not

officers should be the first responders -- first responders in something like that. but -- so i am wondering, let's say prop h does pass, and we are committed to making sure that our residents asafe, tazers aren't abused, and we have proper training in place. -- should we get into a situation where we feel as a community something more needs to be done on the tazer issue, what would you do and how would you go about approaching the p.o.approaching the board of supervisors, the legislative body in trying to make changes? we might be in that situation, so i'm just wondering how you would see your role in collaborating with people that might not agree, but yet trying to put forth policies that protect the people that we are really trying to protect. so i'd just like you to comment on that a little bit. >> so i think that -- i guess my fare for the tazer situation

is it's a band-aid and we end right back up in the situation where we are with guns and sort of the use of force and lethal force. that's my concern. and my concern is that we are giving police officers less lethal physical weapons to utilize on their belt, but we're not giving them the mental weapons that they need in order to be in a position to hopefully not have to use the physical weapons like the gun or the tazer. you know, we're not giving them enough training and tools for deescalation or how to handle someone who's mentally ill or sort of waiting out periods where people instead of sort of charging in when the adrenaline's high and emotions are high, that maybe we take a step back and assess what exactly is happening before we sort of charge in there. and i think that if we give these officers the sort of mental weapons and these kind

of tools and training then maybe they won't reach for the physical tools on their belt, and maybe those instances where they do need to, 'cause there will be times will be far and few between. >> wi with respect to the policies that protect and how we come together, again, i keep bringing up the lead program. one, i encourage people to check it out. it's the law enforcement ased diversion program, but it was a way for me to sort of getting out of being a criminal defense position and go to meetings with the police departments, with the sheriff's department, with the b.a.r.t. police department and with the glide social workers and felton social workers and the department of public health to sort of see these are the crises and situations that we're faced with and everyone has their different lens and we have to work on this policy of how we were going to implement

the lead program, who was going to be able to participate, what the wording was going to be, what were the restrictions of letting people into the program, how are the police officers going to, you know, interact with the community when they believe that someone would be a perfect candidate for this program. so i was able to partake in that sort of situation. and honestly, you know, i also think that being a criminal defense attorney, going as i'm sure you're aware. when you go back into chambers to negotiate a case, the judge isn't always nice or in a good mood, and you all have different sides and different positions. like, the d.a. wants this and the criminal defense attorney wants that, but you have to work together to figure out a situation or a plea that perhaps will benefit your client or not benefit your client, but no one ever comes out of there happy. no one ever gets everything they want, and so that's sort of just the process. and i have experience with that. and it is difficult. there's no easy fix. it's not just going to happen right away. even on the lead program, we

had to meet on a weekly basis, and it felt like we were not getting anything solved. ave se working sort of procedure in place just to work from. >> thank you. and i absolutely agree with you, that we need that mental training that you just described if we're going to have tazers. i absolutely agree with you. do you know of any models out there in terms of what we could instill in our police officer training and use in our police academy so that they are properly trained as to what to expect with regard to those suffering from a diagnosis or substance abuse, whatever. do you know of any models out there that would be beneficial to our police force. >> i'm sorry. models -- >> in terms of training. you called the mental weapons. are there models out there that would benefit our force?

>> i think the department of public health does an excellent job of educating people on mental health, and they have a lot of programs. and perhaps this is an area where we need to bring somebody in to train the police department. i know at the public defender's office we do receive a lot of training from clinicians and people in the communities, d. p. h. included that are able to do those trains and help our clients with mental illness. sometimes it's difficult because we can't sort of communicate with our clients because of this sort of mental health illness or the addiction or the trauma that they've suffered, and it makes it difficult. i know glide does a phenomenal job and part of being in the lead program was also touring glide and seeing all of the programs and -- that they offer. and they actually have a really good sort of training from their social workers and clinicians on how to deal with mental health illness because

again their clinicians would go out into the street and meet the people right there on the street and try engage them in services. >> supervisor safai: great. so i have a couple questions. i'm going to steal a couple of supervisor cohen's questions this time. what specific policy ideas would you bring to the commission in terms of what areas you would like to focus on? you can give just one or two. i know that was in some ways an idea, but maybe an area, one or two that you'd like to see dive in on if you're put on the commission in terms of policy area. >> there's two, and i think they sort of marry together in a sense. i think the use of force logs need to be updated, not this generic piece of paper where the officer gives just basic information but we need a form that has more information

that's going to tell us how the officer got there and why the use of force was appropriate in that situation, so i think we need to sort of draft some sort of form or system that allows us to track how the officer got there in the first place and what other techniques, deescalation techniques were utilized prior to having to use the use of force. i think the other part of that that marries it is the data collection. we need to be able to get this data because how else dow judge if something's working or not unless you have that information in front of you? i think that numbers do tell a story, but they only give you so much of the story if they aren't sort of properly reported. and so i think numbers do give us a sense of impartiality because as they say numbers don't lie. but we need the information in order to get those numbers and find that data. >> supervisor safai: great. thank you. >> supervisor cohen: numbers

may not lie but misthe interpretation or interpreter can, but you can manipulate the numbers and data to show whatever you want to show, which is why it's important to have smart people that will be able to see the interpretation, understand, but also offer a counter that is just as logical to the data and that may offer a different perspective. >> absolutely, and i think that's sort of why we need this sort of system to track the use of force, not just this generic log and the narrative of the police report. >> supervisor safai: thank you, supervisor cohen. >> supervisor cohen: you're welcome. >> supervisor safai: i'll continue with my line of questioning co questioning. you want to talk about meet and confer? >> supervisor safai: no. i want you to -- you spent a lot of time in conversation about the lead program. i think one of the things i like about that, hearing you talk today, is the

interdepartmental or the multidepartment -- not interdepartmental but more the multidepartmental work that goes into that. all the department agencies, you said department of public health, sheriff's department, sfpd, part part police. talk a little bit more about that and how that will inform the work that you do on the commission. and then my second question -- we'll come back to it. my second question is, you did that work for 12 years, but now you are a labor commissioner, and i'd like you to talk about the work that you've done with labor and then we'll get into the conversation about meet and confer. >> great. with respect to the lead program, one of the things that i was able to do was go to seattle because the program is modelled after the -- after seattle, and san francisco was given a 26-month grant in order to implement this program where it would divert low level offenders that suffer from alcohol and drug addiction to

services rather than incarceration and putting them into the wheel of incarceration where it's just a revolving door. and we were able to go to seattle and see the people who actually not only created the program but were implementing it. it was very powerful to see seattle police officers have can did candid discussions. when i went with people that i worked with, we had officers from the mission and tenderloin station as well as b.a.r.t. and the sheriff's department. and we had to be trained together in seattle. and one of the most powerful things i remember is a seattle police officer telling these police officers, look, i was where you are, skeptical. i didn't believe that this thing could work, but it does, and i know that it does because the people that i would see every single day, the gentleman that was homeless and was not even bathing, after a few instances where we had a social

worker that was connected with him and was actually -- they were able to build a rapport, i didn't see him nearly every day out on the street. it was sort of maybe i'd see him once a week, and he started to look cleaner and like he was are of himself and gart starting to engage back with the social worker and society. and eventually, he wasn't there one day. or the other example that the seattle police officer gave was a young homeless teenager that was using drugs, and he was able to change his life, and it was because he was able to hook him up with a social worker right there on the scene and get the person to interact and engage with the social worker. the police officers was telling these officers i was exactly where you were, but then, we were looking at the numbers, and the numbers were seeing that it was working. and the numbers that the police officer would see evidence, he wasn't seeing them anymore. and to him, that sag aignifiedt yes, it was working.

so after we did the training in seattle, we had to meet, and we had to discuss, all right, so who are we going to allow into this program? and what type of program, what are their criminal history going to look like, what are the offenses that are goingo be eligible for this program, and how many chances are we going to give them because we're dealing with a situation that has suffered trauma and they're in crisis, and they have addiction issues. we all know that taking a model where it's abstinence, they're moving toward a harm reduction type of model. so this is something that we had so sort of address in these meetings -- to sort of address in these meetings because during the meetings, the police officers wanted to only give them one chance. if they can't get it together, and they can't engage in fs ises, then we shouldn't reward them, whereas the social worker from glide or felton tells us look, it's not how it works. addiction doesn't work that way. it's a process. maybe if we can take a baby

step, we'll get to the big step later on, but it starts with a baby step, and we would go around the room sharing our experiences until we came up with a policy that says even if they violate, we're going to give them another chance, and if we give them another chance, these are the things that they have to show in good faith that they're trying to engage in the program. these are the sort of things that in working with the group and collaborating with other departments. >> supervisor safai: right. and then, when you were at the department -- i mean, when you were at the public defender's office, did you work with the lead program the entire time? >> i did not work with the lead program the entire time. when it first rolled out, it was more of sort of budget and many issues as to who -- how much -- >> supervisor safai: how many years out of the 12 did you work on lead? >> it was the last year i was there at the public defender's office. >> supervisor safai: oh . i was thinking it was more of a newer program. >> it was.

>> supervisor safai: okay. right. i just wanted to clarify that for the record. bit about your roll as a labor e commissioner and how you believe it'll inform your position on this commission. >> i think that -- well, currently i'm an enforcement attorney, so i basically file civil lawsuits against employers who violate workers' rights, workers' compensation over time, wage and hour laws, things of that sort. and i also represent the agency in hearings with respect to violations of the labor code when we have a hearing where an employer has been accused of violating the labor code, there is a hearing, and after the hearing, if the employer wishes to challenge the decision or the findings of the labor commissioner, they can do so in superior court. and that is also my role, is to go to superior court and defend the agency in that capacity, as well. >> supervisor safai: so just

to -- just to be clear, your role as an attorney in the department of industrial relations requires you to be very familiar with labor law. >> yes, sir. >> supervisor safai: okay. all right. that's really what i was looking for. and them in terms of how you believe just the whole concept of meet and confer and how that relates to the role that you play as a commissioner in terms of the decision making and the policy direction of the commission. >> right. so i think that it is important, so meet and confer, it applies to sort of the working conditions of the police officers, right? and it isn't necessary when the police commission deals with managerial sort of situations. for example, it was my understanding that recently, the commission had decided to eliminate the carotid artery as a use of force tactic, and it was challenged by the police station commissio

station -- police commission -- i'm sorry, not the police commission, but the police officer's association, the p.o.a., and it's my understanding that the court have held that the police commission was acting within their power to terminate the use of the carotid artery use of force type of tactic. so i think that that's something that i am familiar with, being that i am able to sort of being familiar with the labor code and sort of working conditions, when a meet and confer situation would arise and when it would probably be more managerial, not sort of trigger a meet and confer requirement. >> supervisor safai: right. any other questions from committee members right now? i think your questions were answered, as well as the other ones in your presentation. okay. great. if we have any other questions, we will call you back. >> thank you. i appreciate your time. >> supervisor safai: okay. so that concludes the number of applicants.

we're going to go ahead and open it up to public comment. any members of the public wish to comment on this item, please come forward. you'll have two minutes. you can lineup. >> of all the candidates that spoke before you today, i realize that there's a conflict. just like when london breed was president of the board and then by the same response charter appointed her to be the mayor, and you, yourself, supervisor yee, recommended that farrell be the acting mayor because it was a conflicting of two responsibilities at the same time. of all the speakers that came before you, there's only one that's not obligated to another responsibility as far as taking care of business in two different occupations at the same time. and as a result, i believe that one person with that military

experience and that department of corrections experience dealing with supervision management and skills is the best candidate. and with all that material supervisor cohen that you brought out as a lack bog, tba records at the hall ofustice, the backlog is ten, 15, 20 times more than that. i'm the mastermind of that specific rain hearing. it was put on the calendar because of me. i'm the one that brought it up, and that chamber -- at that tailor chamber is a historical chamber because i'm the one that got the statute of limbatio limitations eliminated as far as rain is concerns. now as far as your questions how to handle rape victims, i

would ask you to ask each and every one of these people what is the best tool to use in order to take care of rain victims and rain tools in order to solve a rain? and whichever giveyo the best answer, that's the one that should be the commissioner for this board. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: please, no talking out. thank you. nextspeaker. >> good evening. thank you for giving me the opportunity. my name is sandra everhart, and you were talking about biases. so my daughter, maisha everhart, is applying to be a commissioner. one of the things i did want to add to her story, my uncle was one of the first african american police officers in sfpd. his wife was one of the first african american mounted police officer, so we have a perspective of both sides of administration of justice.

we could appreciate what their role was in protecting the community, we could appreciate the level of safety that was involved for them and what they were trying to accommodate in the community, as well. my uncle was shot at. his beat was in bayview-hunters point, and so we know what it's like to be a family member of someone in the police department, but we also have family members who were frisked, held, beaten, shot, detained, jailed, so we've seen that side of it, too. and the one thing that i always appreciated about our family is we have the opportunity to have very spirited discussions about the role of the police officer and the impact that it's having on the community. and i think that being around that environment where we were arguing on both sides and having a very diverse family

and family all over san francisco, bayview, lakeview, fillmore, whatever, gives her a perspective about what's going on in the city and what the concerns are of the various members. and i was born and raised in san francisco, too. so thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is christian hollings. i'm involved in my neighborhood. i love this city, and it's in that context i ask you to n nominate de'anthony jones in the police commission. he'll strengthen relations between the sfpd and the public. for years mr. jones has engaged with residents across communities in san francisco, he has shown himself to be a dedicated public servant. as a youth commissioner he

excelled with elected officials, commissioners and members of the public. as i mentioned aearlier he's worked with the police commission to get community on a number of sues, including use ofrce, tazers, and the process of selecting a new chief. finally, mr. jones represents three communities for whom it's important to have representation on the police commission: the lgbt community, the african american community, and young people. and speaking as someone who has had the honor to work with mr. jones in the alice b. toklas lgbt democratic club, i know him to be an inoperational leader who dedicated himself to the pursuit of justice. i can't say enough good things about mr. jones' experience, ability, and leadership. in closing, i want to paraphrase last night's work of stacey abrams. in quoting, we have an opportunity to rewrite the next

chapter of san francisco's history where no one is unseen, no one is unheard, and no one is uninspired. mr. jones will be part of that next chapter but for the sake of well run san francisco today, i urge you to nominate. >> secretary ionin: -- nominate de'anthony jones to the police commission. thank you very much. >> good evening, supervisors. my name is zoe polk: my colleagues -- [inaudible] >> -- i have worked alongside mr. rao for 12 years. without a doubt he represents the best of our agency. he has unmatched diplomacy and charisma. he is well known and relied

upon for his meticulous attention to detail which consistently upholded the credibility of our agency. as o organization's policy director mr. rao oversees all of the h.r.c.'s policy decisions and is the department's firds responder on breaking human rights news and exigent communications. he provides strategic advise to the director and commissioners as well as a range of our city's law enforcement executives on time sensitive matters. mr. rao's leadership at the h.r.c. has engaged him in multiple access points on the criminal justice pipeline. he has developed productive relationships with our city's law enforcement agencies, including the sfdp, the sheriff's department, b.a.r.t. police, and district attorney's office. the impact of the policies crafted by mr. rao are enhanced by the care that he

gives to relationship building. at the human rights commission we interface in things that arouse passion and historic trauma. our positions in these have been grounded in mr. rao's diplomacy and quorum. he treats every person he meets with respect, and it is for these reasons, i urge you to consider him for the police commission. thank you. >> honorable supervisors, i'm here to support several people that you have here who i think are high quality folks for the police commission. first of all, maisha everhart. we have shared visions regarding an apparent need for greater accountability and transparency and to ensure that justice is impartial especially when dealing with people of color. sexdly it's important that we have a strong police commission

and have people that are dedicated and are here for the right reasons and attending police commission meet beings. miss everhart has shown that she has the understanding of treating people with dignity and respect and in her employment with b.a.r.t., she has responsibility the susuch do, to be a liaison to the community and many other business owners and ensuring that there's a greater understanding about procedural justice and knew trneutrality. i think she's been a strong proponent for the city of san francisco. and it's also, i believe, time for the voices of women of color to be heard within the police commission. also i'm here to support januar john hamasaki. who has attended police commission meetings despite the fact he wasn't selected the

first time. he has shown his understanding of the police employee groups by meeting with the officers for justice. i also feel that de'anthony jones is another strong candidate for the police commission as well as cindy, the last candidate that we heard from. of course, you can only choose two, but whichever two are left behind, i would hope that you would present them to our new mayor as a possible mayoral appointment, and i do thank you for your time. >> thank you for your time. i really appreciate the presence of every single person in this room in order to advance dignity for every marginal member of our community, we all need to show up. so the fact that you have 12 extremely well equipped candidates for two positions is a very beautiful sign about the progress we've made since the

last time i spoke before this rules committee, where supervisor cohen was one of the committee members of the i am showing up a second time to advocate on behalf of john hamasaki. i believe that he has the candor, wit, patience, and most importantly, deep seated belief in the redempted quality of everbeing. that would make him an asset to police reform in the city. i know that a lot of reform is really boring. i've served on the mental health working group, advising the san francisco police department for many years now, and as an aside, the fourth annual awards ceremony for c.i.t.-trained officers is on june 21st, so please mark that in your calendars, supervisors. we would really love your attendance. but i think the most important thing in any contentious space is for an individual in the

position of a commissioner to be able to hold -- to hold the poibility that everyone has the ability to find redemption despite their darkest circumstances, and given john's experience as a criminal defense attorney, i think that voice which has been lacking on the commission for many years now would really guide the conversation in a productive manner, and i appreciate your consideration for john hamasaki. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. i'm mr. gregory williams. the information that i acquired through your commission -- [inaudible] >> the information that i acquired through your discussion today is a discussion that needs a little more intelligence. what i identified as a lack of -- there is a lack of

education intelligence and professionalism. when you apply this type of negativity then it defeats the purpose of what purpose that i am to -- >> supervisor safai: please speak into the microphone, sir. we can't hear you. >> -- more stability in this board member. i am here to make a difference. i'm going to be ending up hiring, firing, and demoting, and promoting staff members. my understanding is the inappropriate way you conduct your commission questioning and those to be candidates to present themselves as one -- as the best as a commissioner is a futile concept because it serves no purpose. i haven't receive any type of education, intelligence and knowledge to the purpose of why should they be chosen? and the important thing is that's what's important. law and order's what i'm

looking for. so what i intend to do is bring more constituents of mine, hopefully soon, probably tomorrow, you will be terminated, you will be dismissed. you will have no servant's pay, and you will be investigated under the auspices of a grand jury investigation. you have committed a crime to identify no purpose of what you've done or maybe you did, but you have no jurisdiction or authority to do this. i don't want to control this, i am the one to lead it, and that's how it's going to be. i am the one who owns the world wealth. it is my decision whether who gets hired and who gets fired, demoted or promoted. this is to uphold this stage of government. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: sir, your

time is up. thank you. next speaker. thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, everyone. my name is baird fong. i'm vice president of the chinese american democratic club. i'm actually here to first thank you for having this hearing. it's been, i think, very informational for all of us. the reason i'm here is to speak up on behalf of julie soo, one of your candidates, and i want to recommend her as a highly qualified commissioner, potential commissioner for you to serve our city, number one, not just being -- growing up here locally, but also

wrestling with the civil rights issues for three or fore decades that she's been able to participate. similar issues that we've dealt with at the chinese american democratic club, talking about equality and employment, equality and employment, equality and issues. trying to ensure that all san franciscans have access to our services. secondly, she's a problem solvers. she's the type that likes to get into the nitty-gritty, get into the details, and she tries to find that there's actually an out come. next is collaboration, and her work, as we understand with us here at cadc and working in the community as well as on the commission on the status of women, she's brought many parties together to collaborate and come up with a solution. and lastly, she's excellent at

doing the research and studying hard and looking for the data that supports the positive out comes. so thank you very much for considering julie soo for the commission. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name is julie wong, and i've known gloria berry since high school. and i'm lucky my job is relocating and under construction, so i'm able to hangout with her more. and i was -- it's because of her i've learned and become more aware of some of the police issues and abuse in this city. and i feel she's very strong minded, and i know she can handle pressure 'cause sometimes i disagree, and we'd be at it. and i think she'd also possibly be great because she is very interested in the city and the

issues, and i know she really cares and could be dedicated. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you so much. next speaker. >> good evening, honorable supervisors. my name is nelson lum. i'm a resident of san francisco. i'm here to endorse the candidacy of miss julie soo for the seat of commissioner on the police commission. i grew up in san francisco. i raised all three of my kids in san francisco. i went -- i went to college here in san francisco, i left and joined the army from san francisco, and i served a year in vietnam in 1968. that's dating myself. after college, i went and

joined the san francisco police department, and i spent 30 years in the san francisco police department before i retired. that's enough about me. i'm here to speak and to encourage you to select the best candidate to fill the vacant position on the police commission. miss soo is a defendant of generations of san franciscans. therefore, she has a she unique kinship to our city. throughout hur adult hood. she has demonstrated her commitment for the betterment of the community. her educational achievements, her law practices with both governmental and private entities, her -- she's bilingual and along with that, she has served as a commissioner on a commission on the status of women. these qualities already should qualify her without any doubt to be -- to take on the

position has a police commissioner. but what is even more important than all the attributes that i have just mentioned is herrin ate ability to be open-minded and not prejudge an idea no matter how -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. sir. yes, thank you. you can submit the rest if you have something you wanted to submit. next speaker, please. >> chairman, board of supervisors, thank you for the opportunity for this hearing. i think there should be 12 seats available, but we don't. i am a gender nonconforming person dressed like this, and i guess harassed, physically intimidated on the muni bus

maybe two, three times a day. i have lots of triggers, and i decided to be a part of a solution, so i have joined the mental health service act awards ceremony and mental health association of san francisco on top of serving as a voting member for san francisco pride office and fore the traps gender day of remembrance and -- transgender day of remembrance and trans-march. i'm here to support marilyn murrillo. she does not understand one word, and she does not understand impossible. sometimes it's the marathon runners that get to the goals. a lot of her social problems with based on fear, and this is an overcoming. thank you very much for listening.

>> supervisor safai: thank you very much. next speaker. >> good evening, supervisors. i'm marlene tran, a community police advisory board member of ingleside and the a.p.i. police forum. although i here tosupport miss julie soo, i wanted to thank all the other great candidates for being here. i'm very impressed with all of them. as a long time resident in district ten, i started my volunteer community work when crime was rampant in the late 1980's. back then, police reports were english only. therefore, many targeted non-english speaking victims were totally helpless. how could there be any credible data when there were no reports from any of them? as their multilingual teacher and neighbor, i was asked to convene monthly police community meetings, initiated bilingual surveys and assisted police and the public in court matters. therefore i understand the desired qualities of a police

commissioner. while public safety in our communities has improved, it is still difficult for residents to be eyes and ears of law enforcement when few community police meetings provide language appropriate translations on a regular basis and to comply with the language access ordinance. for this reason, our residents are urging this committee to consider miss soo's application because she has the qualifications to bridge communications between the police commission and our diverse populations. her law background, many years on different boards and academic institutions, civic activities and her extensive work are all very relevant to this post. so in addition, we are very impressed that miss soo also has conversational chinese and mandarin to help her better communicate with us. one of her qualities is she's

accessible, very balanced in her views and positions and very hard working. throughout the years, our discussions- [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: thank you, ma'am. if you have something you want to submit, please do. next speaker, please. >> thank you, supervisors for your time today. i imagine brevity is appreciated in hearings like this, so i'll be concise. my name is joseph swice. i'm the chairman of the american democratic club. we were chartered recently, and thank you supervisor cohen for your support that night. this is a chance for the rules committee and for san francisco to stay true to its values of inclusivity and diversity. arab americans deserve a seat at the table where sfpd actions

and positions affect many. marc massarweh deserves a seat at the table. now is the chance to let him provide his passion and expertise to the benefit of the city and allow an additional mi comtynity a chance to advocate for civil liberties, minority rights and justice for each and every san franciscan. please make history by electing what as i understand would be the first arab american on the police commission in a time of polarized intense both here and federally. he will help build trust between the police dmigs and san francisco residents. thank you so much. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, honorable supervisors, for having us. my name is mirrian zouzounis. and i'm here to support. >> commissioner mazzucco: --

marc massarweh. i'm on the small basis commission and i believe we do need more representation of arab americans in city hall. marc also comes from a small business background, and just like my family's business, we are on the cop's beats, we talk to them, we know how to connect what they're dealing with and what the community at large is dealing with, and it's really important that we have a seat at the table. just last month, we had a young community member involved in an officer involved sheeting -- shooting, and what was really apparent in that process, we need someone serving us in the community. in light of today's increasingly important -- to make sure that we hold to the oversights, one during that it has to do with federal and

local mou's and surveillance that targets a specific demographic in the city. in addition to the language access work, our community's been involved with those kinds of items, and they directly intersect with police commission work, and so we really hope that you can help support us in our attempt to increase or advocacy. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> rules committee, supervisor safai, stefani, yee, and cohen, i wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of police commission candidate julie soo. as you know her qualifications, her experience and her fortitude is represented in the application, and we feel she has the qualification to conduct the job in a thorough and beneficial way for the communities of san francisco. she's spent 30 years