are, and to be able to pick the person that's going to support them in this moment. so we very much appreciate all your efforts and thank you for your support. >> chair ronen: thank you so much for your role in drafting this support. [inaudible] >> wanted to thank you all for your sponsorship of this legislation. obviously, my boss, jeff adaci, is strongly in support of this. i'm seeing it's wonderful that we all have three members with children in san francisco public schools. i just want to make a point that about a third of false confessions are from children under the age of 18, and i want to think about what that means to those child, those false confessions coming from those children, what kind of fear, misunderstanding and confusion. i hope this will make a major change to that situation, and i also hope this'll be a model for california and for the --

for the nation, so thank you so much for doing this. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. is there any other member of the public who would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. so i wanted to take amendments on this legislation in two parts, if that's okay. so the first part is what i've passed out on page three, line 19 through page four, line 14. we've made the amendments that i explained earlier, explaining that a responsible adult doesn't necessarily need to be a blood relative, but it goes into detail about who that responsible adult can be. if we can take those amendments without objection? without objection, those amendments pass. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: and then, on page five, line two, i'm going

to read in the amendment. so it would read, the public defender's office shall provide -- striking the word counsel, and adding instead legal advise limited in scope for the youth during the consultation and custodial interrogation references in subsection a of section 96-c.1. the youth may retain private counsel, but not at the expense of the city, and then adding the words absent appointment by the court. so i wanted to thank the bar association representative for catching those -- those amendments. if we could take those amendments -- sure. >> supervisor walton: just a quick question. is the legal advice limited in scope or permanent in scope?

>> chair ronen: patty, i think, would you mind coming up to answer that question? >> could you repeat the question. >> supervisor walton: so on page five frks 96-24d-2, is it the public defender's office shall provide advice limited in scope? >> limited in scope. as i mentioned, we contact the family members afterward and explain to them what might proceed. so we do offer other type of advice. it's not legal advice. we also make referrals to community-based agencies where there is a need, so we do a lot more than just legal advice, and that's where we've really made the connections with the community, as well, so thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you.

>> and we're not going to limit that work. >> chair ronen: absolutely. and just to clarify, the reason why this is important is because at this stage where there's questioning, the point of this legislation is to make sure the youth understand his or her rights to -- to silence and -- basically, the miranda rights and to have an attorney present. and that stage of the investigation, it's important that a youth has extra counseling about that right? if the youth is charged with a crime later, they will have an attorney to provide the actual representation, but that doesn't happen at this stage, which is why i think this was an important clarification in the legislation. okay. great. so if -- can we take those amendments without objection? without objection, those amendments pass. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: we're doing everything okay, city attorney? okay. great. so with that, does someone want to make a motion about the

amended legislation? >> supervisor walton: i move to accept the amendments to the legislation and make a positive recommendation to move forward. >> chair ronen: without objection, this item moved forward to the full board with a positive recommendation as amended. thank you so much, everyone, for attending. [applause]

s. >> chair ronen: mr. clerk, would you call the next item, please. [agenda item read]. >> -- as i'm sure the supervisors are aware, there are significance concerns from the change of what is current a seven-day rule, not a 32-day rule as indicated in your digest. in my submission, i explained that. the change from 32 days will

not accomplish the solution that's intended, and we again thank the committee for taking this a little more slowly than it was originally proposed, and we hope that you will work with our clients to arrive at a solution that will work for everyone. thank you very much. >> chair ronen: thank you. any other member of the public like to speak on this item? >> commissioners, tony robles, senior and disability action. thank you for bringing this to the rules committee. there has been an issue of illegal conversions. there is, you know, precious housing stock that happens to be in s.r.o. hotels. again, we've seen people lose their housing, and you know, my organization is s.d.a. we advocate for people with -- seniors and disabilities, so we thank you for taking this up,

and hopefully we'll be able to come to a workable policy. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. any other member of the public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: there's been a motion to continue this item toe the call of the chair. without objection, that motion passes. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. clerk, can you please read item numbercally. >> clerk: an ordinary requiring department heads and members of the city boards and commissions to complete implicit bias training by june 30, 2019, to require newly appointed department heads and city commissions to complete implicit bias training within 60 days of assuming office. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. this is supervisor stefani's legislation, and we have wyatt from her office to speak. >> thank you so much for having me, supervisors. this requires department heads

and commissioners to complete an on-line implicit bias training within 60 days of appointment, and all existing heads and supervisors have until june 30 of this year. supervisor had kind of experienced this as county clerk. she took the two-day in-person training and really found it eye opening, a lot of great information how to deal with these, hiring, and policy ma making, and that is the purpose and make them aware of this. this training is on-line? this is also an in-person training and that would be optional. d.h.r., susan guard, is the representative here today, can speak more about those items, as well? so really, this is part of an ongoing effort. obviously, san francisco prides itself on being a diverse, inclusive city, and we called for this in december after a

hearing about some issues that we had with hiring, and this is an ongoing process, and we see this as part of that process. so i'll be here to answer any questions you have, and i'll introduce aun guard from d.h.r. to talk more about their initiatives in line with this. >> chair ronen: excellent. any questions for wyatt? >> supervisor walton: thank you so much. i think this is definitely a great step forward and appreciate the intent. i just -- i do have a question just in terms of why the on-line version versus trying to push our department heads and commissioners to take the two day in-person course? >> yeah. i understand that. we view the two-day as a step forward? obviously, when you come on-line as a department head or commissioner, you have a lot of priorities? we would actually encourage everyone to take that two-day course but it's a big lift, so

we want to encourage you to take the on-line and then continue to move forward with that. >> chair ronen: i would -- sorry. are you done? i was thinking the same thing as supervisor walton. is -- would you be open to amending the legislation to require -- i mean, if your department had your -- [inaudible] >> yeah, absolutely. >> chair ronen: and given the type of disturbing statistics that we've seen between native american and african american workers and others in our city, it seems it should be taken very seriously with the in-person course. you just never know. it's so easy to get distracted when you're taking an on-line course in that your full attention isn't there in the room, so i'm wondering if maybe susan wants to talk about this. i didn't have a chance to talk with the sponsor of the legislation before, but my gut

is this should be taken extremely seriously. >> yeah. i think we could have a few conversations with d.h.r. also probably amend the dates to open up more time i think if we're going to require a two-day training? i don't think 60 days is y enough, but i'm open to requiring continuing conversations on it. >> supervisor walton: i definitely think as we talk about continuing training going forward, it may be more complicated to ask current department heads to satisfy by the date. but if you're a new department head coming on board, 60 days in my opinion is enough time if we set a policy in place with d.h.r. to make that a board of

on-boarding that they would take a two-day training. we're talking about a department head, someone who's really committed to the department they're spearheading and the highest level in a department. i'm not sure if i definitely agree that 60 days is a short time period when you're coming in on that aspect, but definitely looking forward to having more conversation about that. >> yeah. we're definitely open to that. we want to have those kind of conversations? i don't think it prevents that two-day in-person training? but we're again more open to continuing those conversations with your offices. i think i'll let susan step up here now. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is susan guard. i am the chief of policy with the department of human resources? i want to say thank you for the opportunity to come speak about this this morning, and i also want to thank supervisor

stefani for bringing this up and also for the vote of confidence she's given to the department of human resources to put this training on for department heads and for commissioners. and so i'm going to just sort of jump into the conversation we were having instead of going through, you know, what i was going to talk about. as wyatt said, we're open to it being more than the on-line training? initially, when we started this a couple of years ago, we started with a contractor name kimberly papillon, and at that time, we did two days of training for department heads, and like you talked about, so many of the department heads who are currently within the city have done two days of training, and so i think if we change this, we should talk about a way to finally tune it so that people aren't -- what i

don't want is people to come to the training feeling like it's wasting their time or it's some ing they've already done. and so we want people to come to the training with their minds open and ready to talk about and here about the principles that we teach but also ready to change, right? because that's what it's about. and i believe that's what happened for supervisor stefani, and certainly, that's what happened to me when i went to the training. so we started out with a one-day training, and it has become two days over time. so what we were thinking when we talked about this in the department is we would condense it for department heads and commissioners so that it's not two days, but pack it into one day, so making it palatable and

something that people would want to come to is the direction that we were heading. the other is we would want them to do it together in a group with their peers. so one thing we've experienced with managers sometimes being in class with people who they supervise makes it difficult for them to get honest, and they're reserved, and they hold back. so having a day with your peers is much more likely -- it's much more conducive to getting to the gut level and talk about the issues that come up, so we would want to do it that way, as well. i think as wyatt mentioned, a little bit of fine-tuning and expanding it beyond the on-line training. pardon me. i woke up with a cold that won't go away, along with others in the city. >> chair ronen: quick question. with department heads, it feels

much easier for them to take the training because they're paid employees with the city, whereas with commissioners, they're volunteers. so i'm wondering if there could be more flexibility when it comes to commissioners but less so when it comes to department heads, making it logistically easier to implement. >> right. and we have these conversations. there are some trainings that we do require commissioners to do, like antiharassment training, but we always have that discussion about whether they're an employee or not an employee, and it always comes up, supervisor ronen. i think instead of painting this with a broad brush, if we change it, we need to use our fine brushes a little bit more. >> chair ronen: so given that it's seeming that you're open

to the changes and at least two of the committee members would love to see this be a little bit more prescriptive, maybe if i could ask wyatt to come up again. how would you like us to proceed? would you like us to continue --? >> yeah. i think we can continue this and figure out which of the nuances is the best way to move forward, whether it's two-day training or one-day training, commissioners or department heads, the timing, and then, we can figure this out next week. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: yeah. i just wanted to say i support the ways we could discuss to strengthen this. i do have a question for miss

guard. i'm wondering if you could describe the actual training, like, what sort of the top level goals or outcomes are, and then, i'm curious if you consulted with outside resources. you mentioned a consultant. >> yeah. so we have a workforce development division within our department that provides training and development opportunities for all city employees. and we are very proud of the legal of expertise we have within our department. so while we do go out to external vendors, if we don't have the expertise or we're unable to complete something within a certain time frame, then we do go out and seek external input or hire a contractor. in this case, we did start out with a contractor, but after two days of training with the contractor, we -- you know, we

learned a lot about brain science, and it was really worthwhile, but we felt like there was really more that we wanted to explore that the contractor wasn't touching on. and so we hired an expert specifically for this training to develop it and train our other trainers on how to put it on. and so that's how we came to where we are today. and the training really -- the goal of the training really is to change perspective, to open minds, and to also give people tools they leave with on how to do things differently, right? so it's great to just have someone come in with a closed mind and leave with an open mind, but if you don't know what to do differently, it's really difficult to make that transition. so there's a big focus on when this happens, what do you do? and there's a lot of conversation and discussion about that and that's what expanded into the two days.

so we did talk about brain science. it's really published from a nonjudgmental space and the hippocampus and where things come through, and the media's role in stereotypes and how we grow up and develop these types of ideas about certain people that are automatic, right? that our brain responds in a certain way. and then, we learn about how our brain functions, and we learned about the effect of i am will i sit bias on people. we learn some examples -- there's some really great examples about implicit bias in action. really briefly, there's a guy who's chasing a woman who has a purse. he's a man of color, and then, we stop the video, and say, what do you think here? and as it turns out, there's a bus coming, and he's saving her

from getting run over from the bus. so there's a lot of ways in the classroom that we show how implicit bias affects other people. we talk about debiasing techniques and other ways that we can make changes in ourselves and in our surroundings. does that answer? >> supervisor mar: yeah, thank you so much. >> so i just wanted to also mention that between implicit bias and harassment prevention, we've trained almost 20,000 people in 51 departments so far, so we're really making great inroads in this. and some of our other trainings that are coming up are cross cultural communications. we've also developed recently an antibullying module in reliance with seiu, there's certain areas where it comes into play more than other areas, so we wants to make sure that people know the difference between bullying and hey, get

to work. additionally, additional trainings are coming on board. and the way we're attempting to address this is from the very beginning at recruitment. we all know that it's illegal to hire based on race or gender in california. so what we really have to do is focus on targeted recruitment, which works, right? so we need people that represent our city to get in -- come and apply with the city, and then, we need to have a diverse group who takes the exam, make sure the exam doesn't have any adverse impacts on any groups, and then get people on the eligible list. and once they're on the eligibility list, they need to be reachable. so those are all areas at the very beginning. and while people are on board at the city, we need to get them trained and make sure they know what their obligations are, and especially the leadership and writing the policy. and really, we want people to be treated with respect and

dignity from the moment they come on board to the day they retire and beyond that, so that's really our goal. >> chair ronen: any other questions? supervisor walton? >> supervisor walton: no questions, but just wanted to comment the issues that we're having across different departments, when we're talking about hiring, discipline, and promotions, and the difficulties that some departments have with people of color. i think this is the right time to be addressing this, and making sure that it's more in depth. it's seriously enough because the reality of it is as we look to the future, we want to make sure we create a climate, to your point, that treats everybody with the same respect and dignity and the leadership is going to be important into making sure that happens. so if this is the time, i would like to move to continue to the call of the chair so we can take the time to talk to

supervisor stefani and have some more conversations what we can do to make it a little bit stronger. >> chair ronen: that's fine. oh, and -- >> thank you. we saw this as a starting point and more than happy to have this conversation and talk about this more next week. >> chair ronen: right, thank you so much. >> right. even if you passed this today, it wouldn't prevent us from going forward with a full day's training. we do make people train the on-line training before they come to the full-on training. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. appreciate it. okay. >> chair ronen: i'll now open this up for public comment. is there any member of the public that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: okay. so we have a motion to continue this to the call of the chair.

[gavel]. >> chair ronen: mr. clerk, can you call item number four. >> clerk: item four is a report from the shelter monitoring committee, and requesting the shelter monitoring committee to report. >> chair ronen: we have howard chen, the chair of the shelter monitoring committee, who's going to present. >> good afternoon, supervisors. today. myself and committee member jonathan adler will be presenting our 2017-2018 annual report. if i could have a quick second, we're going to get the presentation setup. >> chair ronen: sure. thank you so much.

>> once again, good morning, members of the rules committee. today, we are here to present the 2017-2018 shelter monitoring committee annual report. i'd like to begin by quickly introduce you all to the shelter monitoring committee and the purpose of the committee. the committee consists of 13 appointed volunteers, half of whom must be homeless or formerly homeless. there are also four seats on the committee who are filled with individuals who have experienced providing services

to homeless individuals as well as two representatives from city departments. the department of homelessness and supportive housing and the department of public health. there are two purposes for the committee, the first is to provide this body, the board of supervisors as well as the mayor's office and other agencies with information about shelter conditions, operations, any other city shelter policies that can impact shelter clients, as well as monitoring the city funded shelter programs for compliance with the 32 standards of care. the standards of care are city requirements for city shelters and cover broad categories: staff, health, facility and compliance with the americans with disabilities act. to meet those responsibilities, the committee conducts shelter site visits and investigates client complaints. so the committee is required by legislation to conduct site

visits as every one of the sites that are monitoring by committee. four of these are unannounced, and the committee will come in and inspect facilities, as well as question shelter staff about their knowledge of policies and procedures. the staff also makes two announced visits to every site every year, skb these announced visits, the committee notifies the shelter ahead of time that we will be coming in and asks that they post signage so that people will be aware that we're coming in at a certain date and time and talk to clients about what their concerns may be. lastly, client complains, client can follow complaints of any standard violations, and they can file them by phone, e-mail or in person. real briefly, i haddy like to talk about the different sites that are monitoring by the shelter monitoring committee. we monitor resources, shelters and drop-in centers. clients can receive services

such as shelter reservations and/or services such as meals, laundry, showers, case management, a lot of different services, but it varies, depending on each individual location. the largest group of sites that the community monitoring would be the single -- monitors would be the single adult shelters, which provides homeless adults shelter for people over age 18 as well as the shelters that provide housing for -- emergency housing for homeless families. the total number of sites monitored by the committee are 20, and for additional information about each of the sites, there is -- that information listed out on appendix d. >> chair ronen: let me ask you a question. why are navigation centers not included on the sites that you

monitor? >> that was a discussion that the committee had with the department of homelessness towards the end of last year, and that's something that the previous committee did express some interest in, but as of the time of the 17-18 report, they were just not part of the sites that were assigned to the shelter monitoring committee. >> chair ronen: okay. but you don't know exactly why they wouldn't be included? >> as far as why they were not initially included, they weren't -- navigating centers weren't around when the shelter monitoring committee was first setup. and so once they were introduced, there was a conversation that best needed to be had, and that was something that the committee has been discussing with the department of homelessness, but there's a couple challenges that still need to be figured out. now once we have the new committee term that started the beginning of january, i imagine that'll be a new conversation that'll pick up again. >> chair ronen: i'll follow up with scott walton, who i see in

the audience. >> and i'm going to hand it over to committee member jonathan adler to go over the rest of the report. >> hello, supervisors. i was appointed by the local homeless coordinating board to the shelter monitoring committee in 2017, and i've had the opportunity to should ha have -- serve on the shelter monitoring committee for 1.5 years now, and it's been a great experience. i work for an organization called community housing partnership. i was appointed to a couple of different seats -- well, the initial seat that i was appointed to is different than the one that i'm appointed to right now. so just generally, what's going to happen is it's my responsibility to just go to the sites and work with howard to document the standards of care and see how well the service providers at the sites are practicing the legislated

mandated standards of care and then documenting that, and if there's any resolution, howard follows up with the site staff. so for fiscal year 2017-2018, site visits for last year's report, we completed 117 site visits, which is 100% of the mandated total. [inaudible] >> fewest infractions, hamilton emergency center had the l lowest. [inaudible] >> standard eight, sites must comply with a.d.a. and post shelter rules and policies, and standard 12 provide clients with sheets, blankets, pillows, and pillowcases.

and communicate with clients in their native language and require all staff to wear i.d. badges. the number of site visits changed between 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 year by eight, and we fulfilled as a team the total mandated number of 117 site visits. the total number of infractions noted this past year was 114, which is a decrease of 40 infractions from the prior year. 2016 and 2017 had a total number of 40 more infractions, so a total number of 154 infractions. and then, also, the fullest of how many infractions of each standard are on page 13 again. the four -- the four or five top infractions were the same as last year, 3, 12, 21, or 25. i believe in your annual report, if you want to look at the specific standards of care, so it's the very back page, if

you want to know exactly which ones those are. although all sites had issues with the same issues, fewer infractions were noted for these standards. standard eight was the fifth most number of infractions this year, although the number of total infractions stayed the same. the total number of compliants' complaints, so there were 46 fewer client complaints, 20% decrease in complaints, and 26.9 decrease in client filing complaints. so the committee received 174 complaints filed by 98 unduplicated clients. lea [inaudible] >> and then, the most complaints received were from next door shelter, which is san

francisco's second largest shelter. like last year, next door had the most complaints, but next door actually received 68 complaint this year, which is 55 less complaints than they received the previous year, and a reduction of 44%. and then, there's a -- this -- this next slide is a client complaint breakdown, so it's just giving you the type of complaint. so what happens is when somebody gives a complaint then they give two or three different types of complaint in a -- like, a written letter or e-mail or something like that, and so howard goes through them and sort of cyst between, so these numbers might not necessarily represent, like, the total? it's just he has to go through them to make sure that each individual complaint is being followed up on. the top allegedly violated standards of care, standard

one, in 2017-2018 decreased. standard two, three, and then again, repeating the standard eight stayed the same. so generally, the summary -- [inaudible] >> although the committee completed more site visits than in the previous year, the total number of infractions noted across all monitored cited decreased. when compared to the previous year, the standards that sites had the most problem complying with remained the same, 3, 12, and 25. however, the number of complaints decreased from last year. [inaudible] >> and then, also, just -- although the committee is receiving fewer complaints, the most frequently named issues are the same, standards one, two, and three and professional site staff or failure to follow

shelter rules and procedure, unsafe shelter environments, and unclean shelter facilities or lack of hygiene supplies. >> were there any questions from rules committee about this report? >> chair ronen: i had one question. since many of the complaints are about staff conduct, i'm wondering what type of strategies have been recommended or put in place to address those complaints. >> i can speak of two things that we currently already have in place. the first is that the committee tracks the name of any staff that come up in a client complaint. i'd like to point out that these complaints are allegations, we do not necessarily have the proof one way or another of whether these

allegations are true or not. but the idea is if we have the staff that comes up in multiple complaints by multiple clients, that's definitely a red flag. any staff that comes up multiple times in multiple complaints, their name is submitted to the department of homelessness as well as shelter management to point out that this employee has been plastfl. the other thing is any time clients receive a threat of violence, that is also flagged and sent to the department of homelessness contract monitor, as well. >> chair ronen: and then supervisor walton? >> supervisor walton: actually, i was going to ask the same question. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: i -- from the report, i noted that first

friendship and bethel a.m.e. had the most infractions this year, and that kind of stuck out because they're both family shelters, so i'm just wondering what problems do you see that are specific to family shelters and which -- which might need to be most immediately addressed. >> okay. i'm not sure -- we have some representatives from the department of homelessness and supportive housing here and also from the providence foundation themselves. i'm not sure if they'd like to speak on that. from what we've seen, some of the most frequent infractions have been related to the provision of required bedding and linens. as was noted in the report, standard 12, i believe it is, requires clients be provided with sheets, pillows, pillowcases and blankets. and for a long time we were told that there were some issues at those sites related

to the laundering of sheets, so they could not provide them to clients. unfortunately, the shelter monitoring committee must conduct our site visits based on what's required under the standards of care, and there is no flexibility of care. even though the sites were not able to provide those linens, we still had to mark the site visits down. what we found that the site was providing extra blankets to provide kind of a work around. i believe an amendment was passed by the board of supervisors this past october, and so what we're hoping is that that would see a reduction in some of those type of infractions. obviously, not all but at least those that were caused by the committee being required to know that bedding wasn't being provided that the shelter couldn't provide. so i know that was at least one of the specific challenges that

those two programs were facing. >> chair ronen: and one other question. how do clients know when and how to register complaints? >> there's a couple different ways. although it isn't a strict requirement, almost every shelter program that is monitored by the committee, they have our information posted up. you can file complaints through their office. as far as on the ground, when we do go in and we do our announced visits, we found that is one of the best ways of getting our name out there and letting people know there is this agency out there that can take complaints from clients. that starts the conversation about who are you guys, what do you guys do? >> chair ronen: so to file the

complaint, clients have to come to your office? >> they can call into our hotline. we also take complaints by e-mail, and we also have drop-in hours twice a week, tuesday and thursday mornings, although if the clients can't make it then, we can setup appointments outside of those times, as well. >> chair ronen: do you have any other questions? oh, supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: yeah, i just had one more question around the shelter monitoring committee. can you confirm if the melter monitoring committee been understaffed the last year, and what impact has that had on the ability inform follow up on complaints. >> -- to follow up on complaints. >> the previous health worker moved onto a new position, and we've been trying to fill that for a little while. unfortunately that's made it difficult to the workload. the main thing we've done is

cut down on our drop-in hours from four days to two days a week, but if folks can't come in in those hours on tuesday and thursday mornings, i'm happy to schedule an appointment outside of those times to meet with them. >> chair ronen: i'm wondering if scott walton from the department of homelessness and housing could come up. good morning. thanks for being here mr. walton. i'm wondering if you could answer the first question about why navigation shelters aren't included under the provision of the shelter monitoring committee. >> sure. good morning. i'm scott walton. when navigation centers first launched about 3.5 years ago, they were viewed as something completely different. as they've evolved and become something nor consistent with the department of homelessness

and supportive housing, we do see they fit in. the shelter monitoring committee because of understaffing and also the structure of that committee which also changed this last october which was all the committee members' terms ended at the same time, so there was no overlap. all the committee members exited, some rejoined, but they were changing every two years. with the terms overlapping, they've had the challenge of taking on additional sites to monitor. so that was a challenge that the committee has been facing, and we're hoping this year, they can start monitoring our five current navigation centers. and then, over the last year we've been working to review one by one the 32 standards of care, some of which do apply and some of which will be --

will not apply to navigation centers just by nature of the programming. so we've been getting ready to do the programming, it's that we're waiting for the committee to start visiting. we are already sharing information with the navigation centers, you know, if clients make complaints to shelter monitoring committee, we pass them and address them in a parallel fashion until they're ready to take them on. so we're in the process of working on it, but it's really been a combination of their staff. the volunteer members of their committee do all these site visits. if you add another 30 site visits, which is our current five time six a year, that is something that they would have to fit into their schedule. it's not a legislative -- we're moving in that direction. we identified with the formation of the department of homelessness and supportive housing that that was a direction that we want to move, and we've just been trying to get to the point where we could

do that. >> chair ronen: got it, and when do you expect -- >> i expect this year. we're very close to clearing up how the standards apply, and there's only two left to clarify. it's really with the new appointments that started as of january for the committee, we're hoping that at some point in 2019 they'll be able to start doing these visits. and we'll probably do some sort of orientation to get them ready, but we've been working on this. >> chair ronen: okay. thank you so much. any questions for mr. walton? thank you so much. i'll now open this up for public comment. any member of the public who would like to comment on this item, have you two minutes, and if you could please lineup here. seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: i want to thank everyone for your presentation. can i take a motion that this hearing has been heard and

filed? so moved by supervisor mar. without objection, this hearing has been heard and filed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. clerk, can you please read item number five. >> clerk: a hearing considering appointing three members term ending february 20, 201, and one member term ending april 30, 2021 to the commission on animal control and welfare. four seats, five applicants. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. is annemarie fortier here? if you'd like to come up, you're seeking appointment to seat number one. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for taking this into consideration. i'm the chair person of the animal control and welfare commission. i have been for about two years. this'll be my third appointment. my term expired last year, in 2018, but we have been unable

to have a hearing for reappointment. i've been on the commission, like i said, this'll be my third appointment. i came to it because i am a young mother in the city. i'm out and about in the parks in the city. i have a strong interest in children but also the animals in the city. this is a great way for me to be involved in the civics of our town and also to demonstrate to my children and others what it means to be an active community member. we have fielded a few issues over the years. nothing extremely pressing right now. this is the perrenial coyote issue, but this is my passion to serve, and i would appreciate reappointment to the commission. >> chair ronen: thank you. is bunny rosenberg here, who's applying to set number two? no, i don't see her.

nina irani -- hi -- applying to seat number one, two, or three. >> yes. good morning, supervisors. i really appreciate your time this morning. my passion for animals began as i'm sure many others did, from my bond with my first companion animal, charlotte, who i purchased from a local pet shop over nine years ago and who is suffering from serious health issues from the day i took her home. as i began to take care of her and began to suspect she originated in a puppy mil, i educated myself and began volunteering with a local dog rescue group, helping at weekly adoption events in my hometown. our compassionate group leader worked tirelessly to find homes for the endless number of dogs sachbed from local shelters that were stretched to the limit. i when moved to san francisco almost five years ago i looked for a way to become active in

my community. wishing to benefit animals in a more direct way, i volunteer and train as a dog socialization volunteer as the san francisco spca volunteer adoption center and spend weekends helping to train and prepare shelter dogs for adoption. i learned firsthand about the stresses animals endure in the shelter system even in a system with state of the art shelters and have the best rehoming figures in the nation. this led me to the humane society of the united states and their programs for grassroots organizing. after participating in one of their lobby days three years ago in sacramento, where i

advocates for animal protection laws, i applied for their district leader program and was accepted as a leader for the 12th congressional district. i've had the opportunity to campaign for animal welfare legislation and initiatives including the historic campaign for district 12 which passed this last november november and ad-485, which bans the sale of cats and dogs which did not come from rescues. like with many other issues, san francisco has been the forefront -- at the forefront of animal welfare, passing progressive laws before our state and federal governments act, such as the city's ban on wild animal performance, fur ban, and sail of animals in pet shops. san francisco can lead in so many more ways. just a couple of examples, by working to help animals shelter

with their guardians who are victims of domestic violence as very few women's shelters accept companion animals and which working to make sure that homeless shelters and other areas accept companion animals so guardians don't have to choose between health and their beloved companions, and i appreciate your time and consideration. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. any questions? no questions? okay. thank you so much for being here. is stephanie carpenter here, who's applying for seats one, two, or three. don't see her. is brian van horn here who's applying to seat seven? hi. >> morning. brian van horn. i'm a practicing vet in san francisco for the last 12 years or so, and i'm applying for a seat on the commission because i think i can bring an unbiased wealth of information for the committee to work with regarding various issues.

i've been involved in animal work since i was 12 years old or even younger. my grandfather was a mixed animal vet in wisconsin. i grew up in the central san joaquin valley. i was an animal control officer and humane investigator, expert witness in the state of california putting dog fighters and cock fighters in jail. worked in lots of animal labs. i got my public or my vet degree at pomona with an emphasis in public health, specifically bioterrorism and agro terrorism. i can act as kind of an unbiased opinion on a lot of

matters. just this weekend, i spent saturday talking at length with a retired fish and game officer who dealt with a lot of invasive species. on sunday, i dealt -- had a long conversation with a colleague who produces exotic and is dead set against my buddy with fish and game's opinions, so kind of getting both sides of the story and being able to deliver that in an unbiased way. other than that, well, i just think it's the best way that i can sort of provide my skill set to contributing to the function of the city. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. really appreciate it. any questions? >> supervisor walton: quick question. where's your practice? >> physically, we're located at 491 27th avenue, geary and 27th, but i'm a house call vet.

we only use that iffacilities r surgery, dental, something like that. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. i will now open this item up for public comment. if there's any members of the public that would like to comment on this, now's your opportunity. seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: i did want to mention bunny did send in a letter. she is an incumbent and would like to continue, but due to a work conflict was unable to attend today, but despite that, it did not diminish her passion for reappointment. so would any of my colleagues like to make a moment? >> supervisor mar: just wanted to make a comment. just wanted to thank miss fortier, miss irani, and mr. van horn for their commitment.

these are all personal issues for my family, and i know for so many residents in the city, animal welfare is such an important issue, so yeah, thank you so much for your commitment and to serve on this commission. thank you guys. >> chair ronen: commissioner walton? >> supervisor walton: thank you. we have to take these one at a time, correct? >> clerk: no, you can make more than one motion to appoint and -- you can make a motion to appoint more than one person at a time. >> supervisor walton: so i would like to move forward with a positive recommendation to the full board, annemarie foert "ay" for seat one, nina irani for seat three, and brian van horn for seat seven. >> chair ronen: without objection, the motion passes. thank you. [gavel]. >> clerk: and just so the committee knows, we do have

some additional vacancies coming up on this board that will be expiring in april, so there's additional opportunities. >> chair ronen: fantastic. thank you so much for letting us know. thank you, everyone for your service. really appreciate it. thank you. is there any other items? >> clerk: that completes the agenda for today. >> chair ronen: great. this meeting is adjourned. thank you. >> clerk: thanks. >> the garden contains plants referred to by william shakespeare's plays and poems. located near the academy of sciences, shakespeare's garden was designed in 1928 by the california spring and wild

flower association. here is a truly enchanting and tranquil little garden tucked behind the path of a charming rot iron gate with romantic magic. the overarching cherry trees, the gorgeous big walkway and brick wall, the benches, the rustic sun dial. the pack picnic, lovely bench, enjoy the sunshine and soft breeze and let the

>> good morning. i will call to order the board of directors catch a meeting for february 14th, 2019. >> i will note for the record that supervisor haney is joining us for his first meeting as the barge of -- board of supervisors tjpa appointed member. director haney? [roll call] >> mr chairman you do -- term and you do have a coram. item three is a communications. i am not aware of any