>> meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, april 4th meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. supervisor gordon mar, the chair of the committee, joined by supervisors brown and peskin. staff john carroll, and thank you kirk cornkuli and corinna

for staffing the meeting as well. mr. clerk. >> silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. completed speaker cards and copies you wish to have as part of the file submitted to the clerk. items acted on today will appear on the april 16th board of supervisors unless otherwise stated. >> item number one, appropriating inform 124,523 for unlitigated claim of sambou makalou. >> three weeks ago at the board of supervisors approved the settlement of a claim with

sambou makalou for, to address flooding at property that he owns. the ordinance approving the claim also appropriated funds to pay the claim out of the city's west water enterprise fund. that was a mistake in the ordinance so we have not been able to cut a check to the claimant to pay out the settlement. this ordinance corrects that error. funds will come from the water enterprise fund. >> thank you. additional comments or questions from my colleagues for the presenter? are there any members of the public who wish to testify? >> mr. chairman, i would -- if public comment is closed, move to send this item to the full board with a positive recommendation as a committee report for consideration on april 9th.

>> supervisor mar: we'll move that to the board with positive recommendation. thank you. mr. clerk, item two. >> agenda item 2, resolution approving creation of a 58 county joint powers authority known as the calsaws consortium. >> recognize nick menard from the budget and legislative analyst office to present on the item. >> legislative -- is it -- is it on? can you hear me? nick menard from the budget legislative analyst's office. so, this proposed resolution would approve san francisco's participation in the calsaws consortium, described further by the department i think.

turn to page four of our report you'll see the fiscal impact and san francisco share of developing and implementing the statewide information system, through fiscal year 22-23, all of which is general fund. we recommend approval. >> thank you. are there any comments or questions from my colleagues? are there any members of the public who wish to testify? seeing none, public testimony is now closed. any additional comments from my colleagues? can we recommend this item to the full board without objection? great, mr. clerk. item 3. >> clerk: agenda item number three, hearing on the 2017-2018 grand jury report, mitigating

the housing crisis, accessory dwelling and modular housing. >> there will be legislation before this at the next meeting that addresses and responds to recommendations of the civil grand jury. after that, i will make a motion to continue this to the call of the chair to be heard again once the legislation has been finally passed or not by the full board. so, we can give a final and former response to the civil grand jury. so, are there any members of the public who wish to testify on this item? seeing none, public testimony is closed. can we continue this item to the call of the chair without objection? thank you. so we are on number 4. >> status of permanent and

temporary exempt city and county employee positions excluded from the civil service system, including the numbers of exempt positions each year since 2007. the exemption categories, classifications of the positions and the race and gender demographics of recent exempt employees. >> thank you. since supervisor fewer had called for this hearing and she was going to be here to chair the hearing, so, but i guess we are expecting her shortly. she'ser hoo. maybe we'll allow supervisor fewer to get settled and take over on this hearing. actually, i would also like to note for the record that we are

joined by supervisor fewer at this committee meeting and she will be replacing supervisor peskin on the committee when he needs to leave around 12:30. >> mr. chair, i have received a presidential action memo that will appoint supervisor fewer as a member of the committee beginning at 12:30 this afternoon. >> supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor fewer, we are on your agenda item, so, yeah, so whenever you are ready. it's already been called. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much, chair. i called this hearing today after discussions with local 21 and because i am concerned about the use of civil service exclusions among city departments and the impact this has both on the civil service as well as exempt civil service city workers.

worried it undermines the integrity of the civil service system. managers can hire people with little accountability. exempt positions are ex compluded from layoffs, mean they could be laid off before exempt employees. job announcement for exempt positions contain language speaking to the temporary nature which can limit the number of applicants. civil service jobs in san francisco provide a real pathway for economic stability for thousands of people and their families. and it is critical that we protect integrity of this system. it has been and should continue to be a pathway to the middle class. both my mother and my father were civil service government employees and that was possible because the system was blind to race allowing a truly equal opportunity for them. circumvent the process, we chip away at the integrity of the civil service system to give

everyone the same opportunity. i would like to bring up director of civil service commission michael brown, and i believe he has a presentation for us. hello, mr. brown. >> good morning. and thank you for allowing me to speak before you today. i have a short presentation. what i want to provide is an overview of what exempt appointments are under the charter and what the self service commission's role is in terms of overseeing those exempt appointments, very limited. since it's not a permanent civil service appointment. most of our rules that you see govern permanent civil service appointments, and that's what the civil service commission ma ma maintains. i'll give you more information what exempt is. and d.h.r. will have more information how it's used and some departments may have

presentations how it's used in their departments and where it's a positive thing. so, we bring up the presentations. so, i am a product of san francisco. i was raised in san francisco so i have a long history with working with the city. i have been with the civil service commission since 2015. so i have some basic knowledge. i have some history. i have also researched some of the things we are about ready to talk about. exempt appointment made to a permanent or temporary budget position. exempt from the competitive civil service selection process and exempt employee is considered at will and served at the discretion of the pointing authority. that is language out of the charter, so it's hard wired in

there. our civil service rules also echo that. there are two types of exempt appointments. permanent exempt, p.e.x., appointments authorized in the annual salary ordinance, a.s.o., and generally part of a department and more permanent in nature. this is just a general overview, not specifics. but so you understand the process here. temporary exempt, t.e.x., not authorized by a.s.o. and they are often of a shorter duration and are/or irregularly scheduled to fill in temporarily or as needed basis. we also use temporary exempt for other programs you will hear from the departments such as internships or pathways as we talk about in terms of giving employees an opportunity to learn skills. the charter defines 19 categories of exempt employment. hires made into exempt positions are at the discretion of the

appointing authority. however, hires must meet the qualifications for the position. charter section 10.104, charter section 10, personnel administration, and so it's actually number 10.104. categories 1-12 generally talks about department heads, executive assisstants, legislative analysts or assisstants, and expert professional temporary services. that would be in categories 1-12. in charter section 10.104 in categories 13-15, 13-15, attorneys, physicians and dentists, and the retirement system actuary. what we are more concerned about today and in your discussion are the categories 16-19, categories that the civil service commission is also concerned but we have limited authority since

it's not a permanent civil service appointment. however, we still look into them. and you'll hear later in my presentation how we do that. category 16 is considered seasonal or temporary as needed appointments, limited to 1040 hours in a fiscal year. 17, appointments temporary backfill civil service employees on a leave of absence, and limited to two-year duration. category 18, approved for special projects and professional services with limited term funding and is limited to a three-year duration. category 19 is used for the city program to employ quality severely disabled persons into entry level positions. for m.t.a., in addition to the categories 1-19 i just mentioned, under charter section 10.104, another section for m.t.a. under 8a, as in apple,

104 small i, did hes -- designated as critical service employees. exempt. also under the charter, in the from the service rules. so, when there was the designation of creating the department of human resources in 1994, the civil service commission designated or delegated, i'm sorry, delegated to the human resource director the authority to review and approve requests for all exempt appointments under charter section 10.104. and to ensure compliance with the charter and any applicable service rules or commission policies. likewise, transportation agency initiated in 1989 by the voters of san francisco. the director of transportation is responsible ensuring any m.t.a. exempt appointments,

including service critical exempt appointments comply with the charter, and from the policies. there is a reporting requirement with the delegation that both the human resource director and the director of transportation must present reports to the civil service commission. and it's a regular, i think it's annually a report that they do looking at these categories, 16-18. more recently, the san francisco school district and the community college district have begun reporting annually to the civil service commission on the permanent and exempt appointments because they are classified, that means they are also governed under the civil service rules and must comply as well to the timelines. and so this is new for them, this is new where we are trying to get them involved and the civil service rules apply to them as well. >> supervisor fewer: mr. brown may i interrupt for

clarification. in your presentation, the h.r. department approves all of these temporary appointments, is that correct? >> correct. the process goes through department of human resources. >> supervisor fewer: and human resources then, it's not just categories 16-19, but all of them has authority to actually approve these temporary appointments, is that correct? >> temporary appointments, yes. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> applicable matters to the commission that are appealable, decisions by the human resource director and the director of transportation to justify the use of an exempt appointment to fill vacancies may be appealed to the commission. such appeals are final. i've been in the office since 2015, i have not seen any appeals before the commission regarding why the department wants to have an exempt. there have been appeals that

come to us but it's referred back to the department and after that discussion it's not appealed further to the commission's review. >> supervisor fewer: make sure i guess what you just said is that since when did you say? >> i've been in office since january of 2015. >> supervisor fewer: since 2015, you have not seen appeal by the h.r. department about why to justify an appointment, is that correct? >> correct. >> supervisor fewer: but you have seen appeals from employees? >> we have seen appeals from the union, especially recently from local 21, but it's initiated through the civil service commission which then has to go back to the originating to find out the information. and so the union has the ability to ask directly to the department why are you justifying this position. they also have the ability to ask that question directly to department of human resources or the m.t.a. director. why they are justifying this exempt appointment.

that decision can be appealed to the civil service commission. >> supervisor fewer: are you able to tell us in public here about the appeals and what has been the outcomes of those appeals? >> so far they have not brought forward they want to go forward with appeals before the commission. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. please proceed. sorry to interrupt you. >> civil service commission rules and policy regarding matters other than selection, appointment and separation may apply to exempt employees, such as discrimination complaint or matters involving the classification plan is the right classification. and conflicts of interest or leave of absence or favoritism or nepotism, those are things the civil service commission would review, not necessarily appealable matter, but authority to investigate in the civil service commission. we have under the charter the ability to conduct an inspection service for investigating the

conduct and anxious for an appointee in all positions, or secure promotion and other services. we would be looking into favoritism, nepotism or something other than that, if it was e.e.o., through d.h.r., through the e.e.o. component and do an assessment. that appeal -- that could be appealed to the civil service commission depending on the destinati designation or the finding of the e.e.o. complaint. >> supervisor fewer: excuse me, i'm sorry, mr. brown. so, you are telling us that actually when there has been a complaint of nepotism or favoritism or whatever, that you get the complaint, but your investigation brings you back to h.r. department and to e.e.o., is that correct? >> so, if there was a complaint of favoritism or nepotism, done as an inspection service, we would be, my staff would be looking into pulling a record from the department, who was involved in the selection

process, are they related to someone else who is in the department. we do sometimes determine that there is some kind of relationship but we now have to remove that perception of favoritism and nepotism. if the department already knew it, what are they doing to resolve the issue, and so this is a conversation with the department sometimes, sometimes with d.h.r. to maybe look at other ways of removing that perception like moving somebody to another department, per se. but if there is some wrongdoing all together and that has been found in the past, where some disciplinary action would have to be appropriate, but the department would take the appropriate disciplinary action. >> supervisor fewer: when do you take into consideration e.e.o. findings, at that time? >> so, no. e.e.o. finding, goes through the e.e.o. complaint and reviewed by

nikki, those findings, because it's a decision by the director of human resources, can be appealed to the civil service commission. so, the civil service commission can hear e.e.o. complaints. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> that gives the general overview. one thing that's not in this report, and it's in the charter, that there is a cap, there is a cap associated with how many exempt categories 1-12 can be allowed. however, for all employees, except m.t.a., the cap is 2%, and that is 2% of categories 1-12 of relation to the entire workforce. the same thing for m.t.a., 2.75%. however, in the other than m.t.a., there is a way to go over the cap. it can be appealed to the

commission to go over the cap if necessary. however, since i think in 1998, we have not been over the cap. m.t.a. does not have the authority to go over the 2.75 and they have not been over the 2.75 as far as i know for a long period of time. >> supervisor fewer: is there a cap for the other categories? >> no, this is only in the charter regarding the 1-12 categories. >> supervisor fewer: ok. so the other categories, we talk about category 18, category 16-19, there are no caps. >> there are no caps. however, there is limitation to the time allowed to be in those appointments. >> supervisor fewer: i see three years as one of them. so now, chair, may i ask more questions? thank you very much. so, i just have a question. so, looking back at -- can you

just tell me, talk about, if this issue at all about exempt employees and the use of exempt employees and the hiring of exempt employees, has this been flagged by the civil service commission?

>> if we put temporary that are 18 with 12 it changes the cap and looking at how many category one through 12 we can assign. category 12 is that last category. expert professional temporary service. if we've been using it currently for project managers and i.t. classes, we used it for construction in the past. we're outing category 18.

we know that there are construction projects and different things that can last longer than three years. >> chair fewer: the commission has data on the classifications and positions within the department that exceeded the time limit. >> in our report that come to commission, there is data that shows there are departments that are over the time limit. they have to talk about how they'll resolve the issue. it's not resolved until they are no longer here in the position. >> chair fewer: you rely heavily on the data from h.r. is that correct? >> correct. >> chair fewer: thank you very much.

thank you very much for your presentation. now we have kate howard. the managing deputy director from the department of human resources. >> good morning supervisor fewer. thank you for calling the hearing today to give us an opportunity to talk about the use of exempt appointments in the city and county. i have staff from d.h.r. as well as the human services agency, health department, rec and park to answer questions you may have about anything within those departments. i'm beginning t going to do a bf presentation. i'll cover briefly what's the

process by which department request and receive approval for position authority. al bia bit about the data regarg the few departments. the h.r. detector wishes she could be here, today, as you know it first day of mediation with m.e.a. she was uncle able to b -- unabo be here for this presentation. as director brown mentioned, the charter gives authority around human resources matters to multiple entities. you can see that civil service commission develops the rules, defines policies and has an appellate rule in terms of hearing appeals.

the charter gives great deal authority in terms of appointing officers, if terms of hiring and firing employees. the administration of the human resources and civil services rules, policies and ensuring we fulfill the charter. we all work closely together to ensure that merit principles are followed. i want to talk little bit about what the process is by which a department request an exempt appointment. i think that's kind offal first step that folks go through. the first step is a hiring manager needs to identify if they have a need to fill a position using an exempt appointment rather than a civil service appointment. they discuss with their own internal h.r. what the right

category is. it could be they are filling a department head position. it could be they are filling temporary seasonal position and there's a category for that. they identify the correct exemption and then departmental h.r. submits a request to fill a form and copy of that form is here in the presentation for you that requires them to identify things like detailed justification of the project, the duration of the project, the funding sources for the project. our key d.h.r. reviews request either approve or denies it based on the justification that's provided. our review and approval subsequently go through the mayor's office for a secondary review. once all of the approvals are completed, the department can move forward with hiring.

the process is similar for -- this is a form for the category 18 position. but it's similar for category 16 as well. i think -- what my united uniteg what you most hearing about is the category 16 and 18 in particular. i will talk about how those exemptions are used. category 16 is for seasonal or as needed work. examples like the staff that we hire to support elections in the city. we bring folks on, short duration, it's not a permanent role. it can be a summer job position whether that's for use employment opportunity or for a

seasonal. the other important role that category 16 as needed position fill is to address sick leave and vacation back-fills particularly for operations that have 24-7 operations. the next three categories all fall into what we call category 18 exemptions. the first being job readiness programs. these are typically in category, filled in job classes 9/11 1 99r 9916. the goal of these programs is to help people who have been disconnected from the workforce get an opportunity for work experience and job readiness. the second category is really focused on professional and journey-level training program. these kinds of programs prepare people for jobs within the city.

some examples of those we have a human resources training program and accounting internship program. we have apprenticeship program and we have our san francisco fellows program. finally, the next way that category 18 positions are used is really for project specific. limited duration positions. frequently used in support of capital projects or major i.t. systems and implementation projects. for example, currently the health department as you know, is implementing their health records projects, the ethics project. they have a number of exempt appointments working on the implementation of that effort. in all of these cases, as

director brown mentioned, folks who are entering city employment are fired to meet minimum qualification to be appointed to the position. however, the job readiness program typically have very low barriers or few minimum qualifications. let's talk about the data. >> chair fewer: sorry. so, in this category 18, this is a category that has a three-year limit. is that correct? >> that's right. >> chair fewer: you mentioned mainly about special projects that you have. but then, also i wanted to know you said that you had some training programs i wanted to know is the goal of the training program is actually for people to then transition into

permanent civil service positions? >> that's good question. thank you for asking. i would make a distinction between job readiness programs and professional and adjourn level training program. while we are a very large employer, we are unable to hire everyone who goes through a training program or job readiness program into permanent civil service position. we don't have enough jobs. i think the real goal with our job readness program is to given people an opportunity, particularly for those who have been disconnected from employment, an opportunity to get job skills, to have a successful work experience and then to transition to the public sector or the private sector. >> chair fewer: do you have data how many actually transition into the public sector?

>> i don't have that here with me today. we can develop some of that. we do have some information about successful placement out of the human services agency jobs now program. it is not focused on getting people city employment. it's focused on getting people employed. over 50% of folks within three months of exiting the program have permanent employment. >> chair fewer: then your job training program? >> that's one of the kinds of programs -- >> chair fewer: so, you do have data on how many transition to permanent civil service positions? >> i don't have that with me today. i believe we can get it. >> chair fewer: my only question is because, i get that job readiness and job training is essential for people to enter

the work place if they haven't been employed for quite a while or they're look to up their skill level. however, i do think that since we are actually sponsors of job readiness programs or job training programs, it's actually the public responsibility to capture as many as these workers possible. we are ones funding this program. which means it would make sense that we are creating a pipeline for future permanent civil service employees. i wanted to put that on the record that i actually think it's a direction that we should be going if we are not going in that direction, i understand that you're telling me that there aren't enough city jobs to fill these positions but my question is, are we looking actually to give any of these

people jump forward or whatever. not really a preference but a recreating a space that these people can transition into permanent civil service jobs. if we're training them, it seems we're creating a pipeline for civil service positions. i wanted to mention that. i'm sorry to interrupt your presentation. >> happy for the interruption. it's a really good point. i think our preapprenticeship programs are good example how we're doing this. we developed preapprenticeship programs that help people develop the skills to successf successfully compete and enter into the apprenticeship program. part of our goal is to connect

these job readiness and job training programs with permanent civil service jobs. it's also to diversify the pipeline of candidates who are going into craft roles which may have been inaccessible to women and people of color. >> chair fewer: thank you very much. i see on the roster, if i may chair call on supervisor brown. >> supervisor brown: thank you supervisor fewer. i agree with supervisor fewer we hire people whether that's p.p.w. or other d.p.h.

what i've heard happen lot of times when it's time to become permanent, they're having hard time getting through the civil service test. they drop off. lot of them you find are out of work again. i agree with supervisor fewer if we're spending all in money to train them, shouldn't we have a interim or training period for them just to be able to get in to take the civil service test and be successful? i think that's a waste of money when we bring people in, we train them, they are good but then whatever reason, they can't get pass the civil service test. >> onone of the challenges thate have also noted is that,

particularly for entry-level jobs that these individuals are competing for, we have hundreds and thousands of people who apply every time we open up a list. even when individuals who participate in our training program are successful, and they compete and they get on the list, they are not high enough up on the list. one of the conversations we've been having with labor, whether there are ways to expand the certification rules so that more people who are qualified who meet the minimal qualification, can be evaluated and considered for those positions by the hiring department. that's a good point. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: you do have data on the preapprenticeship program. you did mention experience of

one woman here. do you have data on the preapprenticeship program and how many are in permanent poxes? >> i can gather the information we have related to conversion of exempt appointee into permanent positions and provide that to you. >> supervisor fewer: i think i would also like to see this broken out by the job readiness and your preapprenticeship programs. >> happy to do so. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> let's move on to the data. this chart is essentially showing you the total number of exempt employees in the city and

any given year. we have data going back to 2013. we started in 2013 because that's the time line that we converted our h.r. system on and that's where we have good data. what you'll see is that -- you'll see all of the exempt appointments that director brown talked about. the ones that we've been focusing on are category 16, the first highlighted column in yellow and category 18 the second row in yellow. other the course of the last six years, the overall percentage of the workforce that are in exempt appointees has remained constant. in 2013, there were approximately little over 14%.

then you'll see in 2019 right about that same number. you will notice, i will draw your attention in 2015, there watherewas a version from categ, seasonal as needed to the project-based exemption. those are folks who were previously in training programs that we redesignated into category 18 to better match the type of responsibilities and roles that they were in. overall, the composition is consistent. >> supervisor fewer: i'm seeing that in category 18 from 2013 to 2019, there's been 7% increase of 1286 exempt employees.

is that correct? >> from -- that's correct. what i would highlight for you is, if you go along the row and you'll see a jump, 901, 1220 and they believ2500. you'll see corresponding drop in 2006. folks who were in category 16, largely in training positions, like 9910 or 9916, we changed the exemption category because it was more appropriate for them to be in category 18. it gave them access to things like health benefits earlier, paid time off. >> supervisor fewer: category 18 now, correct me if i'm wrong, that's a category that is to be your cap?

is category 16 have any time limitation cap? >> it does. it has a number of hours worked per year. it's 1040 hours within a given year. >> supervisor fewer: those employees that move from 16 to 18, now instead of cap of so many hours a year, are now capped for three years? >> that would be correct. >> supervisor fewer: the three-year mark start when that transition took over in 2013? >> that's a good question. the answer is question. >> supervisor fewer: it's feasible to say if i can conclude just from your data, those in category 16 have been working so many hours capped for so many years? because there's no year annual sort of cap. how many years they can work in category 16. >> that's right.

>> supervisor fewer: now category 18 which is three years. they could have been in category 16 for 10 years. is that right? >> that's correct. there's no number of years duration or limitation. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. i wanted to understand the chart. thank you very much. >> the other significant question that you asked us supervisor fewer was regarding the demographic break down of these kinds of exempt categories. what we have provided for you -- before i get to that -- we have been talking little bit about this mix of who's in category 18. what's the mix of trainees

versus job readiness versus project-based positions like campaign projects and other things. this next chart essentially gives you the list of the top 25 positions that we hired into in category 18 in the last calendar year. i think you can see the shading. the rows highlighted in light blue are job readiness or professional training programs. overall this data shows is that 73% of the people that were hired into category 18 were hired into job readiness or job training programs. job readiness being work experience and reconnecting with disconnected folks to employment and job training really trying

benefit the city and build our own pipeline of candidates in the city. that's just an important point to note is that most of the people that are being hired into these exempt appointments are really in trainee roles. >> supervisor fewer: this shows this chart, if i'm correct, job readiness classification by race, majority of folks in the job readiness programs are african-americans is that correct? >> yes. this is the next chart. that's correct. >> supervisor fewer: i'm so sorry. i wanted to go back to the last one about switching category 16 to category 18. you, under category 16 as what the civil service commission explained to us about the section, category 16 is seasonal

or temporary as needed employment. that's why i guess the camp counselor would make that classification. category 18 is approved projects and professional services with limited term funding. it seems those are very distinct differences in category 16 to 18. for those employees went from 16 to 18, are you telling me that they now are doing special projects in professional services instead of seasonal work? the camp counselor is now an analyst? is that how it works? that switches that classification. what you said to me -- correct me i'm confusing or wrong please. it seems as though we switched from the category 16 to the category 18 but those are completely different services actually in each category.

am i missing something? >> i don't think you're missing something. the folks who switched, positions that switched from category 16 to category 18 are really the job readiness folks -- folks in the job readiness program. it wasn't somebody who was today designated a camp counselor and next week they're an analyst. the rationale for that, i think actually aligned what you were asking about before, the reason why we have folks in job readiness and job training programs is because we are actually trying to train them and help them become ready for work. that is the project that is defined.

>> supervisor stefani: they went from a temporary position to another temporary position. category 16 and category 18 are both exempt temporary. >> category 16 and category 18 are both exempt. category 16 tends to be for activities that are shorter duration, seasonal as needed. category 18 are for projects or activities that have a longer duration but are still temporary in nature. a training program, where you might be in a training program for six months or a year, but you come to work everyday as part of that training program.

>> supervisor fewer: you gave example of the camp counselor. that is a seasonal job. that's not someone that would transition to a category 18. >> that's right. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. you gave an example. i'm so sorry to interrupt you. thank you very much. >> you had started to talk about this slide, supervisor. what we provided for you today is the demographic breaks down over time the last five years for both folks who are in our job readiness programs and folks in our journey level training programs. you noted correctly that african-americans take up the largest share of folks in job

readiness programs. currently approximately 27% clearly over represented. followed by asian pacific islanders, white and latino. >> supervisor fewer: i want to mention that for long time, we used to classify asians and pacific islanders in same category. actually. if we want to actually reduce racism in our civil services in the city government, i think those two categories should be celebrated. they are completely different. the challenges that the community face are different. if you want to drill down into how we can eliminate or alleviate some of the issues iss that are pacific islanders having around employment, we need to sepate