people and everyone in the community is just profound. and so i wanted to give my personal appreciation and love for the family and for joe, and also recognize the sfvip family who i know is hurting a lot right now, and just let you know how much we love and appreciate all of you and how crucial and important your work is. >> president cohen: thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor brown? >> yeah. i actually want to talk about the work that you do. i actually met jungle once, and you never forget when you meet someone like that, even one time. but i could tell that you had the passion and the dedication that you need to do the work that you do. i see -- i know a lot of you in front of me. i've worked with you for years in different variations of c.r.n., people that remember that, then svip.

and with so many heartbreaking things that everyone's been through, and especially you, on the front lines, that to see you come to work every day and still do the work with that kind of passion and dedication, it breaks my heart when i think that someone that you loved and cared about, and that was doing that work alongside of you is no longer with you. but he's with you in ispirit, and i think you have to remember that. so i just want to give you a special thanks, that we know the work that you do, and we know that it's hard, and we're here to support you all. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you. supervisor kathrin stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you, president cohen. i hesitated pressing this because it's very emotional. i was very heart broken when i read about it, his work. this problem is a problem that plagues all of us. gun violence rips apart families, and i am just so

saddened for your loss. he was obviously someone who was well respected and worked extremely hard on this issue. it absolutely breaks my heart for his loss. and i just want to thank all of you. as my friend, maddie scott says, it takes all of us on this issue, so i just want to thank all of you for being here today, and my condolences to you. >> president cohen: thank you: ladies and gentlemen, these men and women standing before you are our street peace keepers. they're the ones on the front lines responding, when many of us wouldn't have the heart to respond. they work collectively with d.p.h., sfpd, and a host of people -- host of community people. these are the people that have probably one of the hardest jobs. i'm privileged to present this

certificate of honor post humously to joe tatui of his life, of his dedication to the bayview community, working to promote peace, education and understanding and years of work in preventing gun violence in san francisco through the street violence intervention program. it is my pleasure to present all of this on your behalf. a special note to his mother who continues to grieve the loss of her son, and to the elders of the samoan community who came together, who flew into town to be here to recognize this uso, this brother, who we had to rest over the weekend. with that, i just want to give the mic over to any member that would like to speak. i specifically want to recognize century and his

leadership within the family for losing his brother. >> first, i would like to thank the svip family, the first responders behind me, the supervisors before me and the president of the panel for acknowledging think brother and the work that these people do day in and day out. i also want to thank the community at-large, that my brother was 110% at what he did out on the streets alongside with the svip crew. and everybody here, you know, moving forward, i don't know what policies you guys are in charge of or what you guys do here. that's your business, but if there's any way to support this svip crew that's out there, doing, like you said, miss cohen, like, the job they do,

folks in this building don't even want to touch. day in day out, they put their life at risk, doing the grunt work that nobody wants to do. so on behalf of my family, i'd like to say thank you to this panel, to the svip family. and my brother, although he be gone in the flesh, but in the spirit, he will live on because all the kids he saved through svip, all the adults -- like you said, you met him one time. how can you forget that. he has an impact on everybody's life he comes in contact with. thank you very much for this opportunity. [applause] >> president cohen: thank you very much, century. i wanted to just open up real quick to see if there's any other members of the family. arturo? >> i have to shorten the mic,

though. so good afternoon, board of supervisors. it's an honor to be here. it has been very trying for all of us. we've spent the last three weeks mourning, grieving, but building community amongst ourselves. with our african american, or latino, and our pacific islander community, we have really bonded as one, and that's something i think we all need to recognize that as a community for san francisco because we reach out to all areas of san francisco to honor century's entire family for our -- for your loss. we are so sorry that this has happened. but i personally want to acknowledge the street violence intervention program, the department of public health, san francisco general hospital, wraparound services, rudy corpus with united players, mitchell salazar. the list just goes on and on and on. it's been a citywide effort

where all of us have come together to mourn and grief, but to celebrate his life. we spent three days at the stadium in a beautiful, culturally relevant ceremony. it was beautiful and an honor to be a part of that. i just want to speak for all of us that we stand together, and we will continue to fight the fight that needs fighting to stop the violence here in san francisco. thank you.

[applaus >> supervisor yee: so madam clerk, since it's a little past 3:00, i think it's the time to call for the special order. >> president cohen: okay. thank you. why don't we just do committee reports right now. madam clerk, can you call item number 23 and 24. >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. items 23 and 24 were considered by theujet and finance committee at a regular meeting on thursday, september 6 and were forwarded as committee reports. item 23 is an ordinance to amend the planning code and the fees set forth in ordinance

number 149-16 to clarify the fees applicable to projects with no or very low construction costs and to change the fees for transportation analysis and to affirm the department's ceqa determination and to make the appropriate finding. item 24 is an ordinance to levee property taxes at a combined rate of $1.16 on each 100 valuation of taxable property for the city unified school district, community college district, the bay area rapid transit district, the bay area air quality management district and to establish a pass through rate of .0675 per-100 of assessed value for residential tenants pursuant to administrative code chapter 37 for the fiscal year ending june 30, 2019. >> supervisor yee: okay. i don't see anybody in roll call -- i mean, to speak.

can we have roll call. >> clerk: on items 23 and 24. [roll call] >> clerk: there are ten ayes and one absence with supervisor cohen being absent. >> supervisor yee: okay. thank you. madam clerk, can you call item 25. >> clerk: item 25 and 26 were considered by the rules committee at a regular meeting on thursday, september 6, 2018

and were forwarded as committee reports. item 25 was recommended as amended with a new title chlts it's a motion to approve the mayor's nomination from the appointment of damali taylor to the police commission for a term ending january 30, 2022. >> supervisor yee: supervisor fewer? >> supervisor fewer: yes. thank you, chair, i would like to sever item 25, please. >> supervisor yee: you speak about it right now since we only called item 25. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. so in light of this very important commission and the fact that there isn't chinese representation brought forward for consideration, i felt it was my responsibility to question both of the applicants around their connections to the chinese community and whether or not, and what type of community outreach they've made to the chinese community and if

they have connections to the chinese community. i've interviewed both of them and specifically asked this question, and it is to my disappointment that i cannot vote today to approve miss damali taylor to the police commission. i feel like her answers did not meet the standard to serve my community, and so therefore, i will not be voting affirmative for it for -- on item number 25. thank you. >> supervisor yee: okay. would anybody else like to speak on this item? i'm wondering, madam clerk, it's a little odd here, but i know president cohen probably wants to vote on this. can we continue this item, and just call item 26 for now?

>> clerk: 26? okay. item 26 was recommended as amended with a new title. item 26 is a motion to approve the mayor's nomination for the appointment of mr. deon jay brookter for appointment to the police commission for a term ending january 30, 2022. >> supervisor yee: okay. supervisor kim? >> supervisor kim: so actually, we've called both items 25 and 26 together, right? >> supervisor yee: 25 and 26 are -- >> supervisor kim: i know both nominees are in the audience today, and i actually want to ask them to come up po the podium. i want to thank you -- podium -- to the podium. one area that was not asked about was on the joint terrorism task force, and as you both know, this is something that my office had worked on in 2012 when we had discovered that sfpd had been working in conjunction with

jptf to survey or communities, particularly or south asian, muslim, arab community without any probable cause, meaning, you know, interviewing, joining, talking with members simply based on their race and religious afilliation without any evidence. i was really proud last year when the chief had stated that they were not participating in the joint terrorism task force, and i think this year, we've found that out of the six agencies overall, that i believe one -- only one or two are actually still continued to participate. and so -- sorry. over the 15 more than california counties, just two of those counties had any kind of formal representation on the task force at all.

and i was just wondering on the record if you could speak to your thoughts about whether the police department should participate in the joint terrorism task force and your thoughts on this policy. >> thank you very much. it is an important -- an important topic and an important question, and i have not had the chance to speak with all of you about it. but i think that sentences go -- pulled out of cooperations with the task force after a lot of careful thought and analysis with our citizens in mind, and i think before doing anything, it would be important to really get more information and speak to members of the community, especially communities that are so harmfully impacted. and so that would be important to me. it's important, especially given this administration and the -- the -- the point that we're facing, frankly, as a

nation, that we maintain our values as a city, and that safeguards are put in place to make sure that our most impacted citizens are not adversely effected. >> supervisor kim: would you support re-janing the joint terrorism task force or surgicaling ethnic communities not based on probable cause. >> so before we had any conversation, i would need to understand -- talk to all of the stakeholders and talk to our community members. without having more information -- >> supervisor kim: without -- sorry to interrupt, but this is a pretty major polish that we've been -- policy issue that we've been engaged in over the last couple of years, so it's something that i expect our nominees to already have done the work, to study the issue, and to have a response. >> of course, of course, of course. so what our city did, pulling

out of the task force -- join join do you support surveilling individuals in the city -- >> of course not. >> supervisor kim: would you support pullirejoining that? >> of course not. >> i think one of the things that we need to do is we sit down and collectively work together, is we need to work with our communities and figure on you how we create memorandums of understanding, to figure out where it is we fit within the task force itself, so being able to hopefully sit down with you all as we represent our communities across san francisco and make sure we do it the right way. as an organization, young community developers in bayview-hunters point, we work exactly with the individuals and families that we're talking about with this task force, so absolutely.

>> supervisor kim: mr. brookter -- by the way, thank you for your answer. my apologies to damali, because you had to go first. could you explain when you say we have to do it the right way. what do you mean by that? >> in making sure that when we iron out an m.o.u., it clearly states where we are and where we stand. >> supervisor kim: could you restate that? i think you're telling us how to do it the right way, but when you're telling us we should do it the right way, what is "it"? i think it is working, again, together collectively, making sure that the m.o.u. is ironed out and all the voices are heard at the table. >> supervisor kim: so you're saying you would consider rejoining or redoing the m.o.u. with the joint terrorism task force. >> yes. >> supervisor kim: as long as it's done the right way. >> correct.

>> supervisor kim: okay. makes me a little concerned because the task force is engaged in this very type of activity and that was part of the partnership, was that the san francisco police department work with the federal agency in, again, surveying members of our community based on racial and religious afilliation only without probable cause of any type of potential, you know, work in terrorism in our city. and that was something that deeply scared members of our community. and i am a little disappointed that that was your response. we've had a number of community meetings and hearings on this issue. members of aclu and asian law caucus along with community leaders have spoken about this issue and why it just runs counter to i think so many of the things that we believe in

and care about and is much more akin to what we're hearing about in the white house than what we believe in san francisco. do you have a response to this? >> well, i definitely think, you know, again, i just want to make sure that all the work that has been done, we can continue to push it forward -- >> supervisor kim: and what is the work that has been done? >> i think when we go back, and again, look at what the task force already been able to do? >> supervisor kim: what has the task force done and accomplished so far? >> well, the fact that we pulled out lets me know that again, we need to sit down collectively and make sure that we are doing things the right way. >> supervisor kim: okay. i see that there are other colleagues that want to ask questions, as well. >> president cohen: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i just

want to make sure you understand the question clearly. because when supervisor kim asked miss tailor do you support surgicaling someone based on country of origin, do you support that? >> no. >> supervisor safai: okay. i just wanted to clarify that. i know this is being asked on the spot, but i also agree with supervisor kim, this is something that's very important. i think in general, the concept is, you know, there was a joint terrorism task force. this is something that was done in collaboration with the police department. there were a lot of communities of concern, particularly mine, folks in the muslim community, focused because of their religious believes. do you believe that people should be targeted because of their religious beliefs? >> no. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you. >> president cohen: we've got two people that have come out

of the rules committee from the vetting process, and i just want to state that this questions of the joint terrorism task force are not within the purview of the police commission. also want to remember that these seats are for people, every day people that represent the general population. and i can tell you quite frankly, the general population does not know or understand the m.o.u. that is in existence, the work that supervisor yee in particular he and i did collectively together, to make this a better -- a reality. i think there was some valid question as to where do you stand on racial providing or religious providing that is more relevant to the appointment of these two commissioners. i am going to be supporting them wholeheartedly, and colleagues, i hope that you do, as well. i've done a tremendous amount of work as you know on police reform, criminal justice reform.

as a matter of fact last week -- i did see these two at the police commission meeting. as a matter of fact it was in that meeting where the sfpd presented their findings in the december 2015 shooting of mario woods. and it's taken this long for the officer-shooting to go through the internal process, and it is by design that they make this so involved and so long that community members lose sight, and lose the energy and the passion. i've got to say i'm glad the two future police commissioners were there, because that's the kind of doggedness that you're going to need to follow and track. quite frankly for those of you that don't know, the san francisco police department's commission roll is to act as a policy body over the entire department of the police department and to work also in conjunction with the department of police accountability, that of which we created by a voter

mandate in 2016. why did we create that by voter mandate? because prior to the 2015 shooting of mario woods, it became apparent that there was not one change to the use of force policies of the san francisco police department. and so it is through that shooting that made mario woods not die in vain that we have spun, all of us -- well, most of us. some of you new members weren't part of the team, but we had hearings on this issue. and so as a result. we are moving in a different direction. some thoughtful questions that i thought did come out of the -- of the rules committee that are pertinent are people's understanding to department general orders, what is -- what is the reason for what is a -- something that would trigger a meet and confer? you see, these are more relevant questions. and i want to speak

specifically to d.j.'s seat, because there is a community lead seat. this is a person that should be able to literally come off the street, be able to occupy this space on the commission and then be able to follow the policy discussions, and if we are having policy discussions up here, then we are missing our mark. we need to make sure that we are creating an environment that is inviting, and also want to call attention that we do need african american representation. there's no secret, there's no doubt, that we've got an overpolicing and an overrepresentation of african americans in the justice system. i personally worked with d.j. as he was director of community developers and organizations in the bayview area for many years. prior to that appointment he was with the southeast facilities commission, which is also located in the bayview. so from my perspective, i have a personal knowledge and i'm here to ask for your support to support this man. now damali taylor is very

interesting because people have tried to marginize and refuse supporting her because she was a prosecutor. i think that is so flat and so one dimensional. are we not the sum total of our experiences? are we just mothers? waiver leaders? absolutely not. this woman has worked for, with law enforcement as well as against law enforcement. and you know what? i would even say that it's incredibly important that we have a law enforcement perspective on the commission to help us bridge the gap that currently exists, that currently exists so that we are creating thoughtful policies where law enforcement feels supported as well as community members feel supported. i'm enthusiastic, i'm excited to see these two candidates before us today who are

stepping up to serve the city that they love, stepping up to do a job that's going to be very difficult, very difficult, long meetings, they're not getting paid for this, and they're going to be volunteering their service. this should be celebrated and recognized. and you know, i'm excited with the community 'cause it's a clean slate. you will be able to build bridges with every neighbor and every sector of this community, the samoan community, the chinese community, the laotian, large community members as well as small community members. that's what community service is about. what's most important when we evaluate these persons' background is have they been bridge builders? yes. have they been thoughtful leaders in their respective professions and volunteer capacities? yes. do they have a command understanding about how the police commission works? maybe not a command understanding, but who in here does, honestly? and i'm speaking to my

colleagues. not everyone. i know supervisor fewer has been to these police commission meetings. i know she's been on the front lines, but not everyone. and that's okay because we're not going to be subject matter experts on every single subject. that's okay. i lean to land use issues when supervisor peskin, when he is talking, i'm paying attention. that's not my area of expertise. i'm asking you to lean into my understanding and support me as i support these two candidates before us. thank you for the consideration i appreciate it. >> supervisor kim: thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor ronen? >> supervisor ronen: thank you. first, i wanted to clarify one issue, city attorney jon givner. it is my understanding that the decision whether or not to join the joint terrorism task force or not is a decision made by the police commission, and i just wanted to get clarity on

that. >> mr. givner: deputy city attorney jon givner. i can't answer that off the top of my head. probably can by the end of this item. >> supervisor ronen: okay. i'm pretty sure that is the decision of the police commission. i -- i -- i came in here prepared to support both of you. i had really wonderful meetings with both of you, but this is an issue that is extremely important to me, and i was troubled by your answers. so i want to backtrack a little and make sure that we're on the same page and understand what's going on here. so i -- i don't know if you've -- i guess my first question is have either of you had the opportunity to meet with the -- with the organizations care, the council on american islamic relations, asian law caucus, the organization center, or any immigrants rights groups as you

know are over policed by i.c.e. and the federal government in general? because those organizations will tell you that rejoining the task force would be a huge mistake and they'll give you ample reasons why, and so i'm wondering if you had a chance to sit down with any of those groups. >> and d.j. can speak on his own behalf, but i have spoken with asian law caucus. just to be clear, just so we're all on the same page, you know, i have a lot of questions. so the idea of rejoining an m.o.u., my position is not yes, we should rejoin the m.o.u. what i said was i would really want to hear from all of the interested parties. for example, who -- who is positing rejoining that m.o.u. and what it would look like? i think what i said was the most important part was talking to members of the community, talking to those who are most impacted, who are most likely

to be provided, who have suffered in ways that no one in this room could not know. that was my initial response. i would need to talk to members of the community before i considered anything. i'm willing to listen to viewpoints from all sides always. you know, that, i think is part of the roll, but my job and my -- my deeply held belief that, you know, as a city, we have certain values that should be sacrosanct, and one of those is protecting the rights of people who are disenfranchised. what i know is that the m.o.u. expired and that we pulled out of it in february of 2017. and from what everything i know and understand, we did so with good reason. so i would have lots of questions before considering or looking at the idea of

potentially entering into another one, and i would have to talk to members of the community and see the actual parameters of whatever those suggestions would be because again our values are not things to be bargained with. >> supervisor ronen: i appreciate that and i'm glad that you would talk to all of those members of the community. and you answered in our personal discussions, both of you, a lot of questions in that exact same way. which i was a little concerned about. what does your gut tell you? yes, you need to know all the details and talk to everyone involved and understand the nuances of everything involved. but my gut feeling is this has been executed in discriminatory ways in the past, so i'd be going into this process with a lot of scepticism. a lot of answers that i've

heard have been this, like, yeah, we're going to talk to everyone and i'll review the information, but we're actually wanting to know, who are you, what would you do, you know, sometimes, you've got to take a stand and take a side, especially in the police commission where all of these issues are hot button issues, where emotions run high. these are not -- these are not issues that haven't been discussed, you know, very publicly and very thoroughly, and from both of you, i'd love to hear -- again, i'm impressed with both of you, and i had a good meeting, but there were a few answers where i was like wow, that sounds a little bit like a rehearsed nonanswer. and we want to know what you really think. even if i didn't agree with you on everything, at least i know where i'd stand and where i need to have a discussion. and i'm worried.

could you get into a little more detail about that. >> yes. first, i don't think i can, nor should i prejudge and give you a -- not having any of the facts before me, i don't think i could do that as someone who wants to join the commission, it would not be fair for me to do that, and i don't think that i could. that's why i tried to give measured responses, because i think that's part of the role ro. >> supervisor ronen: have you lawyerly of you. >> when i say the city pulled out of the m.o.u. and did so thoughtfully, that's my gut. i would have to understand whatever the new proposal was, because my understanding, the city did so with the intention of protecting people sometimes who cannot speak for themselves and who have been victimized, and so that's always where i'm coming from as a citizen, as a

person. it's where i came from as a prosecutor. it's something that i understand. to change that, i would need a lot more information, and i would need a lot more community involvement and participation, and so that's my gut, without prejudging anything, which i could not do standing here. >> supervisor ronen: okay. and if i can ask you, d.j., so your answers were sort of contradictory, because on the one hand, you said you already made the decision that yes, you would work towards rejoining -- approving an m.o.u. and rejoining the task force, but on the other hand, you would want to reach out to community and really understand the issues. and i think those are contradictory. i don't know if you meant to answer in that way. so first i wanted to know if you had had the to meet with cair or asian law caucus or any other groups around the immigrant issue. >> so right now, being able to setup those meetings and being

able to meet with individuals in those groups, to schedule meetings to sit down with the entire groups, and being able to work with individuals that represent those groups as well, too. have been doing that for the past six years, but not the groups themselves. those are still in the works. >> supervisor ronen: so do you stand by your answer, that your intention is to, when you join the commission, start working towards reauthorizing the m.o.u. or reentering the m.o.u. with the joint terrorism task force? >> well, i think i almost gave it two parts. sitting down and looking at the m.o.u. and see if that's the space that we wanted to work in. so i take them as parallel and in two separate parts. >> supervisor ronen: okay. so you're not -- you're not saying that you -- at this point, without -- you're not saying that your intention is to go in there and work towards approving an m.o.u. and reentering the joint terrorism

task force -- you are or aren't saying that. >> i'm not saying that. i'm only saying work on the m.o.u. piece but not necessarily with the tension to rejoining the task force. >> supervisor ronen: and that's where the confusion is. reentering is looking at the m.o.u. >> i think it's looking collectively with the communities to see if that's the route that wanted to go. >> supervisor ronen: okay. i would encourage you to sit down with those organizations as soon as possible because i think there's a deeper level of understanding that needs to happen around this issue, and hear from some of these organizations about when that -- that m.o.u. is in place, that -- the impact on -- especially muslim americans and muslim immigrants in this country. and this is, you know, as a

supervisor of the mission district where there are so many immigrants living, so many latino immigrants that are terrified right now and being terrorized by i.c.e., that this is another mechanism used, to really make sure that you're fully studying this issue. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor kim? >> supervisor kim: i just also want to correct the record. the police commission absolutely engages in thigese types of issues. i absolutely expect our members who want to join the police commission. it's issue that has quite a bit of press over the last six years, so i just want to respectfully disagree with my colleague, president cohen, who actually has done quite a bit

around the police commission that this is not part of your work. in fact the annual report that this board of supervisors passed in 2012 directly goes to the police commission every single year. in fact members of cair and asian law caucus do attend your meetings, and they have taken a very strong position that they oppose san francisco rejoining this m.o.u., so they're all on the record. this is not something you need to hear from them about. maybe it's good to hear from them why they feel so strongly about it, but i encourage you to watch the three or four hour long meetings on this issue where members of the community spoke about what it felt like to be surgicaled for simply no -- surveiled for simply no other reason than religious or race. i think you would understand. i think this board has taken a

very strong position that we don't use local resources to racially target members of our own community without probable cause. now, again, with probable cause, and damali, as a district attorney, as a prosecutor, you know that. it is not a very hard thing to establish. it is one of the lowest standards that we expect our investigators and police officers to establish to investigate potential crime. of course if there is probable cause we should make sure we are keeping all of out citizens safe. i am a little disheartened because this is a big issue in our community. this is a question i've always asked at rules committee of applicants of the police commission. i hope to be able to work with you on that. i'm just going to ask this question because i understand a different m.o.u. could come before the police commission, could be one that you support. i'll ask the question

differently. if the m.o.u. included using local resources to engage in surveillance based on probable cause with raciout racial or religious alfiation, would you support that. >> thank you, supervisor kim. without being able to say what my vote would be, i will tell you, always, if someone were presenting an m.o.u. i would want to know who and why, because my understanding when we exited the joint terrorism task force, it was done thoughtfully and with our citizens in mind. i would want to know information not necessarily from our immigrant groups -- >> supervisor kim: let's take out the rest of the m.o.u. the rest of it is great, but it includes a requirement that our police officers engage in surveillance of members of our community without probable cause purely based on racial or religious afilliation, would

you support that m.o.u.? >> i do not support surgicaling people based on their race and their religious. i am a woman of color. >> supervisor kim: would you support that as a requirement of the partnership? >> the m.o.u. that requires surveilling people based on their race and their religion? >> supervisor kim: yes, without probable cause. that was the previous m.o.u. would you support using local resources to sur veil members of our community based on racial or religion afilliation based on probable cause? >> i think i've answered that question ja. >> supervisor kim: i don't think you have. would you support an m.o.u. that included surveilling members of a community based on race or religious afilliation with the m.o.u. >> respectfully, you're asking me to support a

hypotheticalhypothetical -- >> supervisor kim: i'm asking you if you would support an m.o.u. which included surveilling members of our community based on ishl raor religious afilliation based on probable cause. i can say yes, no, or i don't know. i understand that's not part of your value system, but would you support an m.o.u. that included that. >> the question for me is i don't think i'm supposed to be opining on things before me, but based on what you're saying, that doesn't sound like something i would support based on your characteristic -- >> supervisor kim: can i just say, so you're not sure? >> no. base odd what you're saying -- based on what you're saying, there's nothing before me -- [inaudible] [ gavel [ gavel ]. >> order. [ gavel ]. >> okay. excuse me. we would like to have the

potential appointee speak. >> based on what you just told me, no, that does not sound like something i would support. >> supervisor kim: okay. thank you very much, miss taylor. >> same question, supervisor? >> supervisor kim: yes, same question. >> i feel the same way. in my gut, based on how you've laid it out, i would not support it. >> supervisor kim: thank you, mr. brookter. >> president cohen: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. i just want to redirect the conversation for a moment. since we over the last few months have interviewed almost 12 to 15 candidates for the police commission. collectively, we spent almost ten hours in the rules committee. i have to say that these are two of the finest candidates that we've put forward. i think one of the things that i'd like you to have the opportunity to speak on, is to talk a little bit about the department of justice recommendations and your

commitment to reform. if you remember, at the end of the committee hearing, i said for me, anyone that's going to assume this role has to be committed to reform in the larger sense. there were 272 recommendations. it was a lot of conversation around working to reform sfpd's policies, work on reforming interactions with the community, so the concept of reform is important, and i think it's important for all of us collectively on this body, so i wanted to give each of you the opportunity to speak about that. >> thank you, supervisor safai. and actually, board president cohen actually stated it at the last police commission meeting. we actually saw and got to hear that our officers actually pushed forth about 20 of the d.o.j. recommendations just within the last month at the last meeting. and so with the 272 recommendations that are there, in terms of being able to push forward reform, i always like

to point out some of the things that i'm currently already doing within the community, especially around bias and wanting to look at our recruiting and hiring processes. so some of what we've been able to do actually this past summer, working with our food guardians program was actually side by side with sfpd and the sheriff's department working with 100 young people in the sheriff's and police department in putting young people to work. what we saw in an opportunity to spend time, some of these biases what we look at implicit bias as it goes to the third recommendation in the d.o.j., as they got to sit down and spend time together, some of those biases went away. our young people got to interact with officers and got to see what it means to protect and serve, our our officers got to sit down with young people in the community, and bridge

the gap between law enforcement and community. one of the other things i definitely want to make sure we're focusing on is our hiring processes. how are we working on with the cadet program as supervisor yee pointed out in the rules committee meeting that we had. how do we make sure that law enforcement is spending time in our local schools so that people, growing up, say i want to be a police officer and sit down with an officer, so being me, being able to sit down and look at those two recommendations are very, very high for me, supervisor safai. >> thank you. there's a lot with those recommendations, and i've spoken at length with you about it and a number of the members of the board about it. i was not able to meet with everyone, but i tried, and

almost everyone i was, how disheartening it was for me. that report was really troubling and really concerning because i do hold law enforcement to a very high standard. and probably a higher standard than folks who have not worked with law enforcement because i know how important it is for our officers to be -- to be guardians, to be protectors of our communities. that, to me, is the role. when we fall short of that, it's heartbreaking on many levels, but it's heartbreaking as someone who has watched law enforcement interact with victims and how someone can make or break someone's self-esteem, their ability to over come trauma. those things are incredibly important to me. so i was disheartened by the report, but there's some things that i am heartened by. for example, supervisor cohen's data collection measure with respect to use of force, so i'm looking forward to the report that d.p.a. is putting forward

in november with the results of their audit. i think the community is very interested in seeing what that report says, what the audit has shown because having strong data for sfpd is critical. it is critical for all of us to measure the police department and for the police department to be able to measure itself. that's something that's very important to me. i've spoken to a few of you about my views on community policing and how important it is that we don't just have beat officers walking beat but really officers who are committed to engaging with members of the community in a real way. you know, we have community liaisons, and that's wonderful, but we have officers engaging and knowing members of our communities, so that means you're not only responding or interacting for the first time when you're called out to a robbery and otherwise fatal or terrible consequences happening. but when you know members of the community, that will temper your response and have law

enforcement engaging in caring and acting appropriately, so that's something that's very important to me. i've talked to you about the meet and confer process and how it's a bit of a black hole for me. i can imagine what a black hole can be for community members. i would just like more -- more collaboration and more transparency, frankly, because things that should be apparent to me are not, and so i can only imagine for, you know, your average citizen, trying to discern where are we now with those recommendations? what have we done? it's very confusing. and so you know, there's been some good progress, but there's a lot of work that we have yet to do, and i -- i think one of the values that i can bring to this commission is my -- my doggedness, my tenacity, my care for the city, my care for the citizens of the city, and that means all citizens. i'm not a chinese american.

i never will be, but i have made concerted and real efforts to reach out to many members of the chinese american community because i care. i think it's important that commissioners represent all communities because all communities interact with the police, call the police, and so it's important how our sfpd is policing. so i can keep going with these direct recommendations, but it is a lot of work. there's a lot of work to do. >> president cohen: supervisor yee? >> supervisor yee: yeah. i don't have a question, i just have a statement. i had the opportunity to interview both of them, and through the rules committee. and they -- both of them come in with different strengths, and as a -- as every other commissioner that's gone through to the police commission, and i mentioned to both of them that of all the

commissions in san francisco, at least from my experience on this board, everybody on this -- every member of this board of supervisors care about this commission, we care deeply because it has such an impact on our communities and -- the decisions that the commission makes and how they interact with not only the community but the police department. i -- i -- there are certain answers that i wish you would give more direct answers to, and -- but that's been true of everybody else that have been interviewed, that not every question you're going to be asked, you are not going to give a direct answer. but the answers that i looked to, do you care of what's happening to community of color and to women in our society. and both of you have given good answers.

you know, you both admitted that you don't know everything, and -- but you've shown to me a willingness to learn. we mentioned several -- several of my colleagues have mentioned the other ethnic groups, whether it's chinese americans or other immigrant groups that you are starting to reach out to, and i'm hoping that you'll continue that. i mentioned that many of our commissioners don't know anything about what's going on on the west side, and that i've never seen any commissioners, actually, in any meetings out there, and you're willing to do that. the -- so what i saw in the two of you were two committed people, two people that do care about social justice, two people that really are able to listen to arguments and bring

in your values. and i wish you had answered more directly what supervisor kim asked. it was a very direct question that was just yes or no: i don't believe in using city resources, and if it's part of the m.o.u., nobody's going to convince me that i should support the m.o.u., but you eventually came around to answer it. i think the question of the taser question, both of did not answer strongly one way, but i felt like i understood your leaning, but you want to hear more arguments and hear more research arguments. but overall, i'm going to support you. i feel that they have the right

character, the right attitude that i'm looking for to push back, and that when we talk about reforms, we're not going to tip toe around these reforms. there's nobody feels that we're moving with lightning speed with these reforms. i feel like we're moving so slowly, i don't know if we're actually making any progress, but i guess we are, and i'm hoping you two will be part of the block that's going to be pushing faster. so that's where i stand. i will be supporting and we wa

to standup to the federal government on these things and not enter into m.o.u.'s that compromise constitutional protections. but given all of that and given that you finally got yourselves to the neighborhood of the right answer, i will be voting for you today. >> president cohen: thank you. supervisor kim? >> supervisor kim: thank you. i didn't want to leave it at

the question. i do plan on supporting the two nominees from the mayor's office. i did want to ask you the question. and i wanted it to be on the record. i do hope you work with the community organizations and i do hope that we will get that opportunity to work with you on this. this is something that does greatly impact our community. miss taylor, you're new to me, but it's been a pleasure to learn a little bit about you, and i did want your rules committee hearing, and i did hear your answers to a number of questions in other arenas, which is why i didn't ask you about those. mr. brookter, i know you through your work at y.c.d., and

>> clerk: there are ten ayes and one no, with supervisor fewer in the dissent. >> president cohen: all right. thank you. with that, this motion is approved.

[ gavel ]. >> president cohen: item 26, please. >> clerk: . [roll call] >> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president cohen: thank you. without objection, this motion is approved. [ gavel ]. >> president cohen: congratulations to you both. [applause] [please stand by]

>> supervisor yee. >> aye. >> supervisor brown. >> brown aye. >> cohen.