sue diamond seems very well qualified to represent clients before the planning commission. i don't think she has the type of perspective that the city is a in desperate need of at the moment. we don't need legal counsel. the planning apartment has lawyers. the planning commission has access to lawyers. but we desperately need is people who really understand the major crisis being faced by low and middle income families, and individuals right now in our city.

i think she mentioned she supported sb-50. that was what i heard. i think that is something that i will board of supervisors passed a resolution in unanimous opposition to realizing it was a wolf in sheets and clothing. that took a lot of control i believe she's a woman of integrity that has done a lot of great work in her career. i don't think that is the perspective it that we need to in the planning commission right now. i would strongly support doing a broader search and finding someone who brings the perspective of the crisis we are facing. thank you. >> supervisors, doctor shoemak shoemaker. i have the same privilege of knowing sue diamond. she served as a board member farmers mercy housing. i can say he'll before you, and i think i have met and talked

with all of you over the years. i don't think you will find a better prepared planning commissioner. i think she might be the best planning commissioner generation. i have some friends in the audience here who i know are concerned and have testified, or i can't explain why folks don't know her. i don't know the history there. i think to my friends, if he sat down i met sue, you would really understand that she is bringing the perspective that you are looking for. i can look at you all, supervisors, telling if you are looking balance that passionate person who cares about affordable housing, who will listen to all sides and do a great job as a planning commissioner regardless of the client is in front of you. you will never get a better planning commissioner then sue diamond. i encourage my friends that a way to talk to her. she is a person of incredible integrity. she cares deeply about the issues you care about. i'll totally understand we live in a polarized political world in which people are confused and feel the need to speak out against folks that they think may not be speaking in their interest.

i stand before and tell your supervisors. i know everyone of you in. she is a fantastic commissioner and she will make you proud if he support her moving forward. thank you. >> hello, supervisors. her name is david, i was born and raised in district five were. networking community development and district six in the south i am here to ask that you reject the appointment of a real estate lawyer that has primarily represented corporate interest to the planning commission. the lens that such an employee would see development through is a prophet, not equity, not community and justice. the inequality that exists in the city continues to grow the day, and this is a result of planning, development, and policy decisions that are made by bodies such as the planning department and the planning commission. the appointment of diamond to

the commission will help ensure that the city continues to plan for gentrification and displacement. this does not promote equity or community planning. please reject this appointment. thank you. . >> supervisor ronen: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is oscar. community planner, lifelong san francisco native. i call excelsior my home. you know, i don't know sue diamond personally. i have not worked with her in the past. i am sure she's a remarkable lawyer. i don't know her. my community don't know her. we are ground zero when it comes black and brown communities are being displaced. we are being removed from the city that we built that we groomed and we nurtured. we love. it just doesn't love us back. i think, yes, cool, let's get a balance device someone that has

all sides. we are done with that. i don't think being a lawyer gives you an automatic pass. you can save on a commission. this is a shock collar position. this is a key leadership appointment. i think we need a lawyer. we need activists. we need people that are going to fight for us. they are going to listen to us. they are going to collaborate and not organize people's color, leadership and expertise. again, i don't know her track record. it sounds awesome. in our community, we don't know her. we are in a crisis. over 10,000 latinos displaced from the mission district. we are less than 3% african-american population in a major city. you know, thousands of filipinos are displaced in south of market. i think we need an advocate. she did not reach out to our community. we don't know her. i recommend no recommendation. thank you.

>> 's hester. under the charter in the planning code needs the voice of the public on development issues that come before us. the voice of the public really needs someone who understands and is grounded in the public. i am a land-use attorney. i am not advocating that i be appointed because i certainly do not think that is appropriate. but, right now, we are in a huge crisis. populations are being forced out of the city with no housing for working-class people, and poor people. the planning commission is the frontline where a lot of things happen. there is also other commissions, because the redevelopment agency was abolished.

everything goes to the planning commission. then it comes to the board of summit -- supervisors. the planning commission needs to work through issues with the public. sitting at a desk up there, is not the right perspective). up until now, the planning commissioners have had a history before they came onto the commission of understanding and working with the public. two of them were current commissioners, one was on the board of permit appeals, one was on the board of appeals and others had experience working with the community in area planners. we need people that have really talked to people, and understand in their heart what is the current crisis that comes before the planning commission, and that comes before the board of

supervisors. i ask you to think seriously if this is the right candidate? i have questions that it it is not right. dinky. -- thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i share the concerns that have been mentioned before. sue diamond has excellent credentials for other positions, but not for this one. when somebody can say here that she is concerned about the missing middle. well, we are concerned about the working class, to come and the communities of color. seventy that sounds like they're going to advocate for affordable housing for the ami of 140% is not what we need. we need 70 who understands the people that work, and make the city run and i keep exporting

our working class and communities of color. i am very upset about the direction of the planning commission has taken, that has basically been a rubberstamping group. we don't need somebody that might add to that. we need to have a bold leader in the planning director position. we need to protect who is going to be selecting that person. the planning roll has got to be working with the community, and not letting developers have a free reign. thank you. [please stand by] [please stand by]

i actually couldn't pick sue diamond out from the audience. i've been working on community planning and development issues for the last 15 years and she's been at the forefront for forwarding one of the complex development projects, the jewish home for the agents, a market rate development project that does provide sorely needed assisted living facilities. so why is it that we haven't met her? i think that's an important theme today. arguably the most important theme impacting the city and the planning commission is issues of equity. ms. diamond has no clear track record bouncing these multiple goals. they haven't had one around equity and stabilizing vulnerable communities and

developing authentic dialog with those most impacted by development decisions. now more than ever we need an equity champion on the planning commission and we ask you not to recommend ms. diamond, thank you. >> good morning supervisors, my name is nina. this item greatly effects the item i will be speaking about, which is cannabis social equity. from the testimony of a lot of the community organizers in this room, if this planning commissioner is not operating from a framework of racial equity and doesn't have a strict framework they're operating from, i advise they do not enter into the planning commission because we're having problems getting our businesses through and that's not the intent of our forward motion in trying to shift the way that our city

operates from the equity lens. if that's the case, then everybody here that would be impacted is saying that she shouldn't be recommended. i will also stand in solidarity with them too. thank you. >> thank you, is there any other member of the public who wishes to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel] >> supervisor walton. >> thank you chair ronen. ms. diamond, i do have a couple follow up questions if you don't mind coming back up. >> thank you, what non-profit developers have you previously worked with? >> family house. the jewish community center of san francisco. the san francisco campus for jewish living. temple emmanuel.

the blood bank of san francisco. >> and then you heard some testimony about not necessarily having a track record of working in certain impacted communities, what would you do to build a significant rapport with margin n -- marginalized community? >> i was listening to all the concerns that were expressed concerning my qualifications on equity, communities of color and how they're affected. i will say two or three things about that. the first is my decision to leave private practice representing for profit developers was a statement about what i thought was important going forward. it's why i, you know, worked

with non-profits, where i felt using my particular skills, i could have the biggest impact on helping the tens of thousands of low income people in our city everyday. no, i haven't worked directly with any of the people or the organizations who spoke out against me today, but i will be the kind of commissioner who has an open door. not all commissioners take calls. i will be one of those commissioners who wants to hear from all communities ahead of time. i'm particularly concerned as is evident by the work i've done as a volunteer and professional in the last decade, actually since 2003, particularly concerned about those who don't otherwise have a voice. while my particular way of manifesting that has been to use my skills in ways that i can make the biggest difference for those groups. as a commissioner, this is a different role.

i believe that i bring a willingness and eagerness to focus on the importance of making sure that our community is accessible for people of all income levels. people who are doing fine, they don't need me, it's the other people that spoke today, those are the people who need to make sure they have a commissioner that's open and understanding of and promoting those goals. yes, i'm very attentive to that. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> so, i'm going to make some comments about this appointment. it concerns me that i hear from many of the organizations that i work with everyday that i respect deeply, that have been at the forefront of citing

displacement and for low income communities of color and that they're united in opposition of ms. diamond's appointment. that's worrisome. if ms. diamond is appointed, i would urge you to have an open door policy and proactively reach out to these community groups. they are extremely knowledgeable and have worked for decades fighting for the city and for their communities. i think you can and should develop those relationships and that it would lead to positive results. i would be frank. if i were the mayor and making this appointment, i would choose one of the community activists that spoke that spent their

career looking for creative ways to allow for development, but to allow for development in a way that doesn't further gentrification. i do think that type of experience is what we need more than anything else in the city right now. but i'm not the mayor. i didn't make this appointment. what i would ask for an appointment from the mayor is someone who has integrity, who i believe has a mind of their own, and will listen to all sides and look at the issues without political interference. it's not a theoretical issue. i do believe ms. diamond that you are that person, and that you will be unbiased and you will look at the matters before you in an ethical way.

i do believe you will reach out to these communities and i do belief you won't be improperly influenced politically. we had those conversations and i was impressed with your answers. i also know that underlying this discussion today is a real fear on who will be our next planning director. quite frankly, that is going to make a big impact on which way our city goes. the charter allows the planning commission to forward three names to the mayor and there's a lot of fear that one or more of those names won't be someone who is have this equity lens and this antidisplacement lens at the forefront of his or her mind. that's a concern for me as well, but once again, we have a very

strong mayoral city. if the mayor doesn't like the three names sent to her, she can send them back until she gets the name she wants. we can all, you know, ptend that's not the case, but that's the case. that's how these things work. so i don't know how much, quite frankly, the person that we appointed the board of supervisors that will impact that. i think its incumbent on the entire community, if you're looking for a planning director that will champion working class communities, communities of color that have been displaced in alarming numbers from this city, that you need to make your voices heard and put that pressure on. i don't know that who we appoint today will radically change that

situation. so, you know, i will also close with saying that ms. diamond will replace mr. hillis on the planning commission. he is one of the more moderate voices on that commission, so i don't think ms. diamond's appointment will lead us into that direction. i think you will have an open mind and look at the issues based on the facts. i am prepared to support your appointment today and i do really look forward to working with you ms. diamond, but i will be calling you often because the voices that you heard today that are concerned about your appointment are people that you need to get to know very, very

well. their deep, deep experience working on these issues in the community, i don't think is often appreciated enough because their experience and their ideas and their willingness to think outside the box is the type of thinking that we need to be paying attention to in the city because we're certainly not going in the right direction. with that, i don't know if supervisor walton wants to make comments. >> thank you chair ronen. i want to say appointment decisions are very difficult and sometimes contentious and no one up here takes that lightly. we understand the responsibility that we have. when it comes to making decisions about appointments, i look at the track record, i look at the experience and expertise when reviewing appointments. i also look at the integrity, connection to community, and the purpose of the appointee, what

is their purpose and of course i listen to the community supporters and dissenters and other people that do the work. most of you in this room know community voice is major and very important to me. it is very important to me and when i listen to my community and their concerns about appointments, naturally my antenna goes up. nothing points to ms. diamond making decisions that have negatively effected our communities. i know how it is to be in the fire and how it is for people to think they know how you would make decisions before you're given an opportunity. in so many cases, i've been misjudged in what decisions i would make if i was given a certain opportunity. i think some of you know that. and you know, i believe ms. diamond is qualified and prepared to serve with dignity due to her work within a

non-profit builders and within the community. some of these builders we all support and want to make sure they receive the same, if not more opportunities than a lot of our for profit developers and so with that said, ms. diamond, i hope my gut is right in supporting you. i do believe you will be a voice that will listen to all sides as you make decisions and i definitely echo the sentiments of chair ronen and make sure you get a chance to know the community and have conversations because they bring valuable voice to this work and with that said, i definitely will be supporting this appointment and please make us proud. >> supervisor mar. >> thank you chair ronen. i wanted to share my thinking on this and comments and i wanted to make a motion.

so, ms. diamond, again, i deeply appreciate your willingness to serve our city and your extent of experience on land use matters because these matters are at the heart of the crises we face as a city. our intertwine crisis of affordability, housing, and the role you're considered for is an immensely important one in providing oversight over these core questions. what do we build? where? how? and for whom. recently we released the job housing fit report that showed how grossly imbalanced our growth has been and what kind of housing we biuild with moderate and low wage workers left behind as we construct market rate luxury housing that's unaffordable for the average worker. we've done this for years, as

the cost of rent and mortgages sky rocket and we done it without looking at this data. until i commissioned it, this report has never been done before. the fact is that the planning department, over the past decade has promoted market rate growth and failed to manager -- manage it properly or think creatively or make tough choices or invest in public housing, infrastructure and transit, that could prevent the displacement of working families and anyone that isn't super wealthy. gridlock streets, a crisis in traffic violence and fatalities and the list goes on. these crises didn't happen in a vacuum. they happened following decisions made in this building on the planning commission and in the department you seek to oversee. this is a critical moment for

our city and for the planning commission. this is a chance for us to turn the page on the policies of the past, to think creatively and differently about how we ensure a future for working people and the middle class in san francisco. to move beyond a reliance on the market and inadequate community benefits to solve problems that the private market helped to create. for me in this moment, it's essential that planning commissioners bring the perspective of those most harmed by these crises. it's important that we hear new voices, new perspectives, and new experiences. we cannot afford to continue the status quo. working families cannot afford it. the middle class can't afford it. low income communities of color cannot afford it. we need a planning commission that shares the experiences of those being displaced and look like the communities we're losing and most importantly we

need a planning commissioner that's accountable to the many, to the hard working people in this city who are barely hanging on. i am concerned about the representation of our neighborhoods, in the front line communities most impacted by the work that -- most impacted by what's been playing out in our city in the last decade and frankly i think it's essential that perspective that continues to be overlooked to further the status quo. so ms. diamond, i really appreciate your work, especially over the recent years in the non-profit sector and your willingness to be here. i deeply appreciate the perspective shared with us by the public and community representatives today. given all these factors in front of us, i don't feel this committee should be making a recommendation on the appointment today. i would like to make a motion that we forward this item to the

full board without recommendation as a committee report. >> do you have any remarks about that supervisor walton? are you okay with it? okay, sorry, so you would send this forward, you just wouldn't make a recommendation either way. okay. that motion has been made. can we have a roll call vote. >> on that motion, vice chair walton. >> no. >> member mar. >> yes. >> chair ronen. >> yes. >> motion passes, the motion is to refer the matter as a committee report to the full board without recommendation. >> yes, and just to be clear what that means to everyone is that there will be a vote tomorrow at the board of

supervisors that what the committee is saying that there are so many differences of opinion, that we want to leave it to every board member to make their own choice on whether or not to support your candidacy so we're not giving a recommendation one way or another. this is so important that everybody needs to decide for themselves what they're going to do. so that's what just happened. there will be a vote tomorrow at the board of supervisors. so thank you everyone that came out today. appreciate it and we'll see you tomorrow perhaps. >> madam chair, i did note that the title on the agenda did not list the number of years in the terms. if it's possible, i would like to make that amendment to know that it's a four year term. >> okay, sure. >> motion. >> i will make it a motion to

make that amendment that's the a four year term and that motion passes. >> and without recommendation to tomorrow's board meeting. >> that's right. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. clerk, can you please read item number 4. >> before i continue, i would like to state that we have opened up an overflow room. if you do not have a seat, we ask that you go to the north side court to watch this meeting as we cannot allow people who are not sitting in the seat to remain in this room due to the fire code. thank you. >> i wanted to say a short statement before we leave. i want you to look at the board pictures you have. >> excuse me, sorry. >> we're going to leave now because it's a fire hazard, but

we came down to get a little voice on this. >> you will be invited to come back for public comment once we get to that point. >> okay. we'll let you get back to work. we're sorry. >> thank you so much. would you please read item number 4? >> number four, the right to affordable housing unit in a revitalized housing development. >> if you are remaining in this room, please have a seat in one of the remaining open chairs. >> thank you for your patience, good morning mr. miller, how are you? >> good morning. >> begin. >> fantastic.

it's a tremendous day and i'm honored to be here. i'm here on the backs of dozens, if not generations of residents who are putting this forward on behalf of supervisor walton and mayor breed. i'll be brief because i know many of our residents want to speak and have to get back to work. very quickly, before you is an amendment to the right to return legislation for hope f.s. -- s.f., it's the largest public housing and reparation initiative designed to transform our public housing neighborhoods into racial equal communities. we use reparations intentionally to say we as a public private partnership are trying to repair what bad public policy has created in our communities. with hope s.f., we are for

incredibly strong communities. this is west point, folks call it hunters view. folks use to call it double rock. you have the multimillion dollars views and down to the swamps, so sunnydale. so we have worked hard to repair broken promises across our four communities and all of you have supported the funding to replace the dilapidated housing. we're on the way. before you is historic legislation that positioned san francisco at the forefront of public housing transformation to ensure the three things happen. we are building this housing and in many ways, our families, some families are able to benefit from the housing, but not all families. we have seen over the past several years, 80% return rate

at hunters view, but we're concerned about sunnydale. we want to make sure that as we build this housing, as we build this affordable housing in communities that have been left behind for decades, that the families that live there, that the families that raise their kids there, that the families that waited and waited, that this is the housing for them. so this legislation does three things. number one, it ensures that current households have a right to return to the brand new public housing in their communities. so whether you move to an off site, you move to an r.a.d. unit or staying at aunty's house, this beautiful housing is for the current families. secondly we want to ensure that all hope s.f. household members have a preference for the affordable. so the tax credit. for our 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds that are making tax credit income, we want them to

have the first right. we want them to have the preference for the affordable housing. we're tired of our babies sleeping on couches, on cars, and we want them to have a unit of their own to raise the beautiful children that they're building in their community. then lastly, before you at the board is a process of transfo transforming the housing authority. they have tried for years, but they have failed our residents, so many, many former public housing families have been evicted, have left, have vacated, have abandoned less than stellar circumstances. we want to ensure those families who moved, who's been pushed out to pittsburgh and atlanta and baltimore can come back home. as we build these new communities, they know home is waiting for them. these are the three categories

that mayor breed and supervisor walton have drafted. i would be remised if i didn't give a shout-out to chair ronen as well. i thank you on being here on behalf of the residents of hope s.f. >> thank you so much. supervisor walton. >> thank you, and first of all i definitely want to thank director miller for your work on this. of course all of your work with hope s.f., and you said most of how i feel. this type of legislation is very important and personal to me as many of you in the audience know. i lived on 25th street, at 32 west point road, and lot of my family no longer lives in these communities. there are reasons for that and what we're trying to do now is

right some of those wrongs. all of these hope s.f. projects are all marginalized, isolated communities for too many decades. we have work to do to make chose changes. since we know folks have been displaced and we know folks have left the city to go to some of those other communities in the bay area, now this work can bring some of those folks back and that's what this legislation does. just a libel to -- little bit to add, this will allow the right for anyone who ever lived in one of our public housing sites. as we continue to create ways to fight displacement, and bring black people back and other displaced people of color back into the city, it's important to allow people who lived in dilapidated, enadequate, inadequate housing, back to the

naked they helped build. this is a strategy to bring back communities of people of color. sun sunnydale will be able to return to the neighborhood where they raised children, built communities, and were contingent of their families remains. we must ensure that the diversity we celebrate is maintained. this is one step and one legislation that will help us achieve that goal. i want to demonstrate how important this is, thank you for coming up and your voice. i want to thank the mayor and all my colleagues that have signed on and their support, supervisor mar, supervisor ronen, supervisor yee,

supervisor peskin, and this is important to the leadership of our city as well. thank you for being here today. chair ronen, those are my comments. >> thank you so much. i just want to thank you supervisor walton for bringing this forward. this is long needed, long delayed legislation that finally is coming forward and i couldn't be more excited about it. when we were going through the renovations and the conversions to the r.a.d. program, at holly court, in my district, the initial discussion with residents, there was so much fear that the moment they stepped out of their unit, so it could be rehabilitated, that they would never get back in. that fear was based on decades of displacement from san

francisco. it was the rational and smart thing to fear. the city did a great job in trying to sway those fears and promise that everybody would be able to come back to their units. promises have rung hollow in the past. it wasn't surprising to me that many residents didn't feel wonderful and really safe based on those promises. now it's going to be the law, the law of the city. that is what it should have always been and that's what it finally will be and i could not be more excited and more proud to be supporting and be a sponsor of this legislation. thank you so much supervisor walton for bringing it forward. if there are no more comments from my colleagues, we will open -- sorry mr. miller. >> i just wanted public comments for our residents. >> that was