them into their normal operating procedures. >> it's a good thought and we will follow up with them. we have next phase project in the same area of work. one of our standing performance audits with these departments is enrollment rates. it's a measure that we track quarterly if not monthly i think. >> thank you. >> any public comment? thank you so much. let's call the next item. >> before going on to item 7, i want to let you know, it's so cold in here. there's a building-wide hvac challenge going on this morning. sorry about that. [laughter] item 7, presentation from the city service auditor regarding the whistleblower

program and possible action by the committee in response to such presentation. >> good morning. tonia lediju, chief audit executive. thank you for that acknowledgement. i'm freezing. today's presentation is an update on our while blower program activities and initiatives through fiscal year 2018-19 which is quarter two.

in advance of today's presentation, whistleblower program staff support regular meeting with our cgboc liaison. our most meeting was with members brenda mcnulty and larry lush on january 24th. for the benefit of new committee members, the first few slides will provide an overview of the whistleblower program. according to california government code section 5307.786 to maintain whistleblower program to receive information regarding allegations of fraud, waste and abuse by local government employees. the san francisco campaign and governmental conduct code article 4, directs the controller as city services auditor to administer whistle we

whistleblower program. this section also makes confidential draft, notes, preliminary reports, audits investigations and other reports with some exceptions. note that campaign governmental conduct code was amended in december 2018. these changes have gone into effect in 2019. at the next presentation by the whistleblower program we'll discuss how we're addressing new mandates on the program and if the changes are impacting our workload and resourcing. the previously mentioned state and city laws make the controller responsible for a broad variety of allegations specifically, we are tasked with specifying and investigating the misuse of city funds, improper

activities by city employees as well as officers. the whistleblower program, we don't investigate every complaint we receive.

>> good morning i'm steve flaherty i'm investigator with the controller program. i'll be talking about some of the our complaint activity for fiscal year 18-19. i apologize if the numbers on the screen don't reflect the numbers in your packet. our fiscal year began on july 1st. we had 82 open complaints. we haved 221 complaints and closed 218 of them. at the close of calendar year, we had 85 open complaints. putting that in context with the next slide about how many complaints we've had going back to fiscal years, complaint volume has been rising. we received more reports each year. i don't think it can be

attributed to one factor. there are several factors that can influence how many complaints we're receiving. the outreach performed by the whistleblower program is one of the factors that drive our complaint workload. we continue to manage the sustained high number of complaints we receive. the program has a team in place. whistleblower program understand it's important to make sure they are important and considered. if complaints are not resolved, we realized they may conclude their allegations are not taken seriously. resolved incident reports in timely, we believe it improves trust in the whistle brother -- whistleblower program. in quarter two, we closed 8

knife o85 ofthe 104 complaints 0 days or less. we had 85 complaints open on december 31, 2018. 53% of these complaints were open less than 90 days. there are factors that can influence the length of a whistleblower program. the number of witnesses that we ned to interview as part of the investigation and the need to coordinate efforts among city departments as well as the availability of evidence and for multiple sources. slide number 9, we have chart going over the disposition closed complaints. we talking about some of the trends that we're noticing.

we're noticing greater percentage of the complaints we're receiving returned the jurisdiction of another city department. tonia mentioned there are certain complaints that we have to refer to other departments. one of the variables the whistleblower program, we don't control who submits the complaint or what they submit complaint about. there's benefits of the whistleblower program receiving these complaints. it ensures that the controller office is aware of systemic issues throughout city government and allows us to get those complaints to the department of jurisdiction over them. just talking about some of the initiatives that we do to spread

awareness of the whistleblower program and balance the whistleblower program mandate for confidentiality with the public's right for transparency on operations. we issue quarterly reports that detail the operations of the whistleblower program. we issue quarter one report in december and quarter two report drafted in progress we expected to issue next month in february. the whistleblower program produces fraud bulletins, making city glees and member of the public aware of costly occupational fraud schemes they may encounter while interactiving with the employees city and county of san francisco. we issued two bulletins. first bulletin was issued on september. it was on construction material fraud. we issued second bulletin in december on supply chain fraud. our third bulletin is in progress now. we expect to have that issued next month as well. we conduct webinars in order to

spread knowledge of investigative best practices with other jurisdictions across north america. we've had one hot line webinar so far if year. it was on lessons learnedden a fraud investigation. we have a second webinar scheduled for next month. it's little bit different than the previous webinars we issued. it will be a panel made of up of managers of city of texas and city of san diego. we'll make it more interactive than previous webinars and opening up to the audience and allow for realtime questioning and answering. we've also been very active on the professional association conference circuit. whistleblower program given presentations at following conferences. we presented in front of the california account and audit

managers on design and performance and measurements. we presented in front of the association of local government auditors last calendar year on the same topic as well as participating on fraud hotline panel. >> thank you. brenda? >> steve, i'm the liaison. we met on two occasions in november and in january. before i render a summary of my report, steve, would you be so kind as to share with the rest of the cgboc members, new development that will impact your work in the whistleblower program? >> there were some changes made to the campaign government under the code that tonia referenced earlier. it's going expand whistleblower

program protections and place new requirements upon the controller office. just to summarize what those requirements are, are the controller office if collaboration with the ethics commission will be responsible for whistleblower program protection as part of the new hire training program. ththe controller office will collaborate with the ethics commission and department of human resources to prepare materials to publicize and promote supervisor responsibility to assist people and filing retaliation complaints. we'll be required to collaborate with the ethics commission and human resources to prepare web-based training for supervisors regarding their responsibilities to assist

people filing those retaliation complaints. one of the other responsibilities is that the controller will be tasked with preparing a notice of whistleblower protection, their department contractors have. tonia, said we probably covered those initiatives and any impact on our operations more in our next presentation to cgboc. >> good, thank you. i'm the liaison for this program and have been for the past four years. what i normally do is to meet up with the staff, steve sometimes tonia will join us. i'm guided when i go into the meetings with two main

objectives. one is to ask if there's been changes that might have been impacted their work externally and internally. secondly, my other objective is to interview staff generally, so i can get a sense where there's been any changes. it goes through material, pretty much like the slide that you seen as a way to understand whether looking at the statistics, whether the trend is the same and whether we can try and get some reason to some of the numbers. in these two past meetings, larry bush joined. i want to share with the members. once an appointment has been

made with staff, i would ask mora to extend the invitation to the rest of the members. to some extent, if you're interested in the program and you want to sit in, you're welcome to. this is something that's more an operation. >> can you explain to the quorum? >> some people can come but not everybody. >> but you might want to. [indiscernible] >> i don't think you're on the microphone. >> this kind of a complicated area. this body has redeveloped over

the years. kind of the overriding principle is that all public bodies have to conduct public business at a public meeting. which has to be agendized and notice to members of the public. a public meeting occurs when a quorum of that body gets together to discuss business the public business. that can happen in a variety of ways. it can happen five of you together and in one place one time discussing these matters. it can happen what we call one person discusses the matter with another member committee who discusses it with a third and then a fourth and fifth. for the purpose of the sunshine act and the brown act, that's a public meeting. that's the general principle.

in order to avoid quorum problems, we've devised liaison system, where two members of this body meet with one member of the body, they meet with bond program and city services auditor as well as with the whistleblower. i don't think that's the same person. i could be wrong about that. that person reports back to the body. that way we don't have any quorum requirements or issues. if there's a specific matter that's interesting, as kristin was saying, we can have a sign up. as long as we don't have a quorum, it's not a problem. if we have a quorum, mora will let me know and we'll figure out way to make that work. >> any questions about quorum?

>> i want to complete my comment. i met with steve. we went through the statistics. this program has been very positive. i think that the statistics are reflected. there's analysis, comment and all my questions, my questions and larry bush had an interest in this and his questions has been answered to our satisfaction. i am confident that the process that we have laid out in investigations is sound and we

have competent staff carrying out those steps. i'm making a formal request to tonia to engage an external consultant to conduct a thorough review of this program from procedures to training so that we can feel confident that we haven't missed anything. when you look at a program,

first of all, it's the actual laid out manual, the structure. the other part would be the actual humor resources, the staff members, carrying out that structural lay out. this is -- we haven't done that in the past. i wanted to use this opportunity to share this recommendation to my fellow members and to see if you have any questions, objections or agreement? >> one of the reasons i think this is a brilliant thing to do, we don't have the authority to actually see the actual complaint itself. one person does right? for the rest of us, we go say, what did that person say or do then bring subjective decision on whether that was done or not.

we have the ability to trust that the processes, the processes are right and they are being followed and outcome hopefully will end up being what's appropriate for this program. i think that that's without being auditor actually happens. that's the best we can do. i know that we've done anything like this in all my time at cgboc. >> i think it is timely that this governing body request an external party to take a line by line review of exactly what we're doing. just for the record, i wanted to say that, whistleblower staff annually and periodically, they do update their policies and

procedures when they have to react to certain changes. for example in state law and some other mandated practices that they have to comply with. i think this is on an operationally side. it we conduct the study it would make whole committee feel lot for comfortable. we're reviewing the procedure line by line. >> the other point is, the bond funds that we oversee, there's other groups that oversee them. >> the whistleblower program program, we're the only ones that oversee that program. there's a lot of sensitivity to the purpose of that program.

this is us. >> yoyoui wanted to share with y fellow members, our oversight in the whistleblower program, the only thing we can do is actually make sure to oversee that the program itself and the people carrying out the program are doing the steps that are required of the program. process in this program i think it's premiumly important. the process and the people carry carrying out the process are the only areas we can oversee. >> in terms of next stem, is there a formal motion being made and what would that motion be in terms of getting a proposal on what this would look like?

>> peg, do we need to vote on this? this is request from the committee to conduct special study. >> i don't think so. we've discussed it in our liaison meeting. i think the request is well understood by us. we'll take it as part of our work plan. i don't think you need formal vote. >> we like to discuss before it's -- we like to see the scope before it's finalized. >> this will cost money. i would yield to expertise and longevity as to the liaison. i would like to know more about it and what the cost is and what the staff is to comment on it. >> if i may, the request is a

valid request for many reasons. in order to sight accept government audit principles, we internally have a pier review. what happens in that review from our government auditors, group of individual who are highly have high expertise, comes in and goes through a systematic process to determine that we are following the requirements as outlined by our standard. we have successfully under my leadership all three have passed them. one of the things that i have been working hard to do is to establish a pier review process

for whistleblower program. i tried to work with the institute of internal auditors as well as our g.a.o. to institute this. we have not been successful as of yet. i continue to work on it because i'm on two respective boards as it relates to both of these entities. i do believe it is very important outside of just the board requesting. to ensure that we're able to say yes, we're following standards, we have processes and currently we do follow best practices that we benchmark against jurisdictions. we have the association fraud organization that we look at standards as well. there are not a set of standards just for whistleblower programss at the federal level. which really govern specifically

highly government private industry. just to provide you with assurance, that the request is really valid and it is important to me as well. i do want not only you as a board but our constituents to know that we are running a solid program. i'm very confident in the program that we're running. i'm confident that when we go through the review, we'll do well in that review. we do believe in doing an excellent job. our staff quite capable and i'm very proud of the staff that work with me and under my leadership. we will look at consultant working with you in that process and the cost of that consultant as well as scoping out that area.

>> thank you. tonia, i will trust your good judgment. i wanted to clarify that the objective of this is going to be -- we're not seeking and audit of your work. we're seeking is to have the consultant look at our existing written processes. the manuals. that part because to me, in overseeing this, we're overseeing a process. we're not auditing the work but we wanted to make sure that the rule book that we have is something that is up to date, that's robust, that's thorough and may include some other avenues that outside factor have created. that's really the plan.

i'm sure that kristin, the chair and whoever is going to fill the liaison role would be in conversations with you. >> i'm dr. derek kerr a whistleblower. i need to use this machine here to project a slide.

earlier, during the whistleblower program presentation, you were shown this table how the number of complaints have increased since 2012. what you weren't shown is the 10-year picture. right now, like 466, we're right back to where we were in 2009. there was a huge dip here in the middle. what this showses is that the whistleblower program is recovering in terms of public access. it also monitors the outcomes of whistleblower retaliation complaints that go to the ethics commission.

complaints is zero have been sustained by the ethics commission. ethics commission reported on whistleblower retaliation investigations in 1995. ethnics never substantiating a single whistleblower re retalian claim. i think cgboc should consider a performance audit for the ethics commission to find out why with over 100 complaints over the years, they've never substantiated one. that's very rare to have no

retaliation. if you look at the courts, we have to sue the city to get validated. the city is paying millions of dollars on whistleblower retaliation claims. ethics commission doesn't sustain any of them. it's whistleblower retaliation complaints are dead only rival at the ethics commission. please look into it, thank you. >> item 8 for communities to comment. [please stand by]

>> just one more bit of background, i guess. so the city has a lot of different types of public satisfaction surveys, including a broad citywide one that my office conducts, but they're usually not at the level of detail that would give you public feedback about something as specific as a bond projector knowledge of a bond program. so these are being done through intercept surveys at two sites, and they're very specific to voters, to visitors, understanding the linkage to the city bond program. the underized templates. so this is the subject that we've been talking about with goboc sometime. there's a standard spreadsheet that you will always see in the back of your packet, giving

status of the macrofinancials of the bond, how much has been appropriated, how much has been expended. again, the macrofinancials, will always be there, each one will give a presentation of the type that you saw that the bond folks give today, where they'll summarize progress, milestones, and we've gone back and forth with different summaries that the committee has looked at in those specific presentations. there's been a varying level of detail, and some of the liaisons have experienced -- it's been confusing. and the confusion was shouldn't we try to come to a more standardized template in similar formats for each bond program that would help your understanding of it, so that's the nugget of the idea.

the department of public works is in agreement about that nugget of idea. they do the financial reporting for a lot of the bond programs since they manage them, even if the client is another department. we've been in conversation with the managers at public works about what a refreshed standard bond template program would work. and then finally, one other fact to know, i think it's been mentioned, a lot of these programs also report to an oversight committee, most likely a commission, so we want to ask for the feedback from the commissions for that background, as well. we would be happy to work with a member of goboc to come up with different options for standardizing a report.

when you are have new members and doing that organization, i have hours available in my staff to work with you on it. so that's my current status, and i leave it up to you to decide if you want to do it now, or starting next fiscal quarter. it's up to you. that's where i am. >> i would ask if we can do it next quarter. not that i'm kicking the can down the road, but i would love to have everybody have a little more experience with the meetings and whatever information we get. anybody -- so if you can use that guidance. >> that's fine. between now and the next meeting, we'll pull together some of the different templates that we can give you. item c, expenditures audits. tonya, do you want to comment on that? >> yeah.

this was the last page of the c.s.a. report. >> and finally, under 8-2, other matters, public finance, upcoming issues. >> good morning again. initial trivetti. director in the public finance office. as i mentioned earlier, the closest next sale will be the bonds for the seismic 51 program. it's now the preservation of affordable housing and seismic safety. like i mentioned, the board is currently in the process of authorizing that legislative approval, and we're anticipating to sell next

month. i'm communicating with the project managers for that bond program, and we'll -- we'll continue to be in contact, but currently they're expecting a late summer issuance. we'll continue to determine expenditures and revenues for that $27 million approximately. for the next two items, we're working with the san francisco port. the last $3.1 million from the public open space and neighborhood parks program, that's all funds that are allocated for the waterfront parks portion of that program. it's managed by the port, and we're currently evaluating whether to combine that with the first issuance of the seawall bonds. as you might be familiar, in

november , proposition a was passed by the voters, authorizing $25 million g.o. bond for improvement along the embarcadero seawall. also, we're reviewing the cash flow needs, but initially, it's looking like based on their planning and design needs for that program, they'll need about $25 million this summer or the end of the fiscal year. so those are the ones we currently see on the tape able we'll continue to see what their needs are. >> mark, can you make sure this is updated with all the bonds that have been approved by the voters. this stops in 2016. >> sorry? >> my version stops in 2016, i think we've had bonds approved since then -- unless i'm missing a page. >> awesome.

any questions? comments? see no public, so obviously, no public comments. i think we'll be adjourned. thank you for your time today.

>> i lived in the mission neighborhood for seven years and before that the excel see your district. 20 years a resident of the city and county of san francisco. i am the executive director of a local art space nonprofit that showcases work that relate to the latino community and i have been in this building for seven years and some of my neighbors have been here 30 year. we were notified from the landlord he was going to sell the building. when we realized it was happening it was no longer a thought for the landlord and i sort of had a moment of panic.

i heard about the small sites program through my work with the mission economic agency and at met with folks from the mayor's housing program because they wanted to utilize the program. we are dealing with families with different needs and capacities. conversations were had early in the morning because that is the only time that all the tenants were in the building and finally when we realized that meda did have the resources to buy the building we went on a letter writing campaign to the landlord and said to him we understand you want to sell your building, we understand what you are asking for and you are entitled to it, it's your land, but please work with us.

what i love about ber nell height it represents the diversity that made me fall in love with san francisco. we have a lot of mom and pop shops and you can get all your resources within walking distance. my favorite air area of my homes my little small patio where i can start my morning and have my coffee an is a sweet spot for me and i >> san francisco is surrounded on three sides by water. the fireboat station is integral to maritime rescue and preparedness not only for san francisco but for all of the

bay area. >> fire station 35 was built in 1915, so it's over 100 years old. and behind it, we're going to build fireboat station 35. >> so the city's capital planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must resist sea level rise. >> fireboat station number 35, construction costs are approximately $30 million, and the construction is over complicated because the float, it's being fabricated in china and will be brought to treasure island where the building -- the actual fire station will be

constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 1/2 for installation. >> we are looking at late 2020 for completion of the fireboat float. the historic fire house will remain on the embarcadero. we will still respond out of the firehouse with our fire engine and respond to medical calls and other incidents raratin the district. >> the if a sill has to incorpora incorporate five to 6 feet of sea level rise. it's built on a float that can move up and down as the water level rises, and so it's on four fixed guide piles, so as the seas go up, it wican move and down with the bay. it does have a full range of travel from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet.

so that allows for current tidal movements as well as several extra feet for sea level rise in the coming decades. >> the fireboat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. >> the access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side or more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then, it's sliding over the top of the float. so then that way, the ramp can, you know, flex up and down like a hinge but also allow for a slight -- a few inches of lateral motion of the float. both the access ramps, of which there's two, and the utilities, need flexible connections when connecting from the float and back to the building. so interesting power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connections to the float. >> fireboat station 35 will provide room for three boats

and one fire boot. >> we would like to establish a dedicated marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidents. looking into the future, we have not only at&t park, we have a lot of kayakers, but we also have a lot of developments on the southeast side, including the warriors stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incidents along all of these new developments. >> there's very few design references for people actually sleeping on the water. what we really looked to were cruise ships, which are, you know, larger structures, several times the size of station 35 but have a lot of people -- a lot of sleeping, but they're really the only good reference point. and so we looked to the cruise ship industry that has kind of an index for, you know, how

ma many -- how much acceleration they can accommodate. >> it's very unique. i don't know about any other fire station built on the water in the united states. >> the fireboat's a regional asset that can not only be used for water rescue and stin wishment of fires, but we also do environmental cleanup. we have a special rigging that we carrie that will contain oil spills -- carry that will contain oil spills until viermsal can come out. this is not a job, it is -- environmental can come out. this is not a job, it's a lifestyle, a community, and we're willing to help people any way we

. >> my name is dave, and i play defense. >> my name is mustafa, and i am a midfielder, but right now, i am trying to play as a goalkeeper, because they need a goalkeeper. >> soccer u.s.a. is a nonprofessional organization. we use sports, soccer in particular to engage communities that can benefit from quality programs in order to lift people up, helping to regain a sense of control in one's life. >> the san francisco recreation and park department and street soccer u.s.a. have been partners now for nearly a decade. street soccer shares our mission in using sport as a

vehicle for youth development and for reaching people of all ages. rec and park has a team. >> i'm been playing soccer all my life. soccer is my life. >> i played in the streets when i was a kid. and i loved soccer back home. i joined street soccer here. it was the best club to join. it helps me out. >> the tenderloin soccer club started in the summer of 2016. we put one of our mini soccer pitches in one of our facilities there. the kids who kpriez the club team came out to utilize that space, and it was beautiful because they used it as an opportunity to express themselves in a place where they were free to do so, and it was a safe space, in a neighborhood that really isn't the most hospitalable to youth -- hospitable to youth

playing in the streets. >> one day, i saw the coach and my friends because they went there to join the team before me. so i went up to the coach and asked, and they said oh, i've got a soccer team, and i joined, and they said yeah, it was he for everybody, and i joined, and it was the best experience ever. >> a lot of our programs, the kids are in the process of achieving citizenship. it's a pretty lengthy process. >> here, i am the only one with my dad. we were in the housing program, and we are trying to find housing. my sister, she's in my country, so i realize that i have a lot of opportunities here for getting good education to help her, you know?

yeah. that's the -- one of the most important things that challenge me. >> my dad was over here, making some money because there was not a lot of jobs back home. i came here, finish elementary in san francisco. after that, i used to go back to my country, go to yemen, my country, and then back here. last time i went back was a couple years ago. >> i came here six months, i know nobody. now i have the team has a family, the coaches. amazing. >> i'm hoping for lifelong friendships, and i'm super inspired by what they've been able to achieve and want to continue to grow alongside them. >> i love my family, i love my team. they're just like a family. it's really nice. >> street soccer just received a five year grant from the

department of children, youth and family, and this is an important inreflection point for street soccer u.s.a. because their work in our most important communities is now known beyond just san francisco recreation and park department, and together, we're going to continue to work with our city's most vulnerable kids and teach them to love the beautiful game. >> i want to tell everybody back home, i hope you all make it over here and join teams like this like street soccer u.s.a., and live your life. get a better life. >> right away, just be patient, and then, everything will be okay.

>> right before the game starts, if i'm still on the field, i look around, and i just take a deep breath because it is so exciting and magical, not knowing what the season holds holds is very, very exciting. it was fast-paced, stressful, but the good kind of stressful, high energy. there was a crowd to entertain, it was overwhelming in a good way, and i really, really enjoyed it. i continued working for the grizzlies for the 2012-2013 season, and out of happenstance, the same job opened up for the san francisco giants. i applied, not knowing if i

would get it, but i would kick myself if i didn't apply. i was so nervous, i never lived anywhere outside of fridays know, andfridays -- fresno, and i got an interview. and then, i got a second interview, and i got more nervous because know the thought of leaving fresno and my family and friends was scary, but this opportunity was on the other side. but i had to try, and lo and behold, i got the job, and my first day was january 14, 2014. every game day was a puzzle, and i have to figure out how to put the pieces together. i have two features that are 30 seconds long or a minute and a 30 feature. it's fun to put that altogetl r together and then lay that out in a way that is entertaining for the fans. a lucky seat there and there,

and then, some lucky games that include players. and then i'll talk to lucille, can you take the shirt gun to the bleachers. i just organize it from top to bottom, and it's just fun for me. something, we don't know how it's going to go, and it can be a huge hit, but you've got to try it. or if it fails, you just won't do it again. or you tweak it. when that all pans out, you go oh, we did that. we did that as a team. i have a great team. we all gel well together. it keeps the show going. the fans are here to see the teams, but also to be entertained, and that's our job. i have wonderful female role models that i look up to here at the giants, and they've been great mentors for me, so i

aspire to be like them one day. renelle is the best. she's all about women in the workforce, she's always in our corner. [applause] >> i enjoy how progressive the giants are. we have had the longer running until they secure day. we've been doing lgbt night longer than most teams. i enjoy that i work for an organization who supports that and is all inclusive. that means a lot to me, and i wouldn't have it any other way. i wasn't sure i was going to get this job, but i went for it, and i got it, and my first season, we won a world series even if we hadn't have won or gone all the way, i still would

have learned. i've grown more in the past four years professionally than i think i've grown in my entire adult life, so it's been eye opening and a wonderful learning >> good morning, please welcome san francisco gay men's chorus, performing "singing for our love ." [♪]