to thrive. this holiday season and year-round, make your dollar matter and buy black. good morning and welcome to the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, monday, january 25. i am the chair of the committee, aaron peskin. joined by vice chair supervisor mandelman and committee member supervisor chan. and our clerk is mr. victor young. do you have any announcements? >> due to the covid-19 health energy and to protect board members and the public t board

of advisors is closed and members will be in the meeting remotely and committee members will be attending through the same extent and if they were publicly present. comments are available by calling 415-655-0001. that is 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 592-7527. and press pound and pound again. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions but you will be muted and is in listening mode only. and when the item comes up that you wish to speak on and speak slowly and turn town the television or radio.

alternatively, you may submit public comment by email to myself victor.young@sfgov dot com. and it will be forwarded to the supervisors and included as part of the official file. that concludes my initial comments. >> thank you, mr. clerk. please read the first item. >> item one, hearing to consider appointing one member for an indefinite term to the transbay joint powers authority. >> thank you. we have one applicant to this seat for this interesting joint powers authority. that is alicia jean baptiste

whose name is not correctly spelled on the agenda and needs to be fixed when it goes forward to the full committee to the full board of supervisors, but with that, ms. jean-baptiste who i have known for many years at many different incarnations at the planning department and san francisco m.t.a. and now as the head of spur, are you available to address this committee, ms. jean-baptiste? >> i am. good morning, supervisors. >> governor, alicia. thank you for your willingness to serve. why don't we start by having you explain why you are willing to go on this mission and we may have a few questions and then open up to public comment. the floor is yours. >> thank you so much.

thank you for considering me to this appointment. >> i currently serve as president and c.e.o. at spur and we focus on creating a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous region and prior to joining spur i spent about 16 years working for the city and county. about half of that time at the m.t.a. and the other half at the planning department. and one of the through lines in my career has been my deep belief in and deep commitment to public transit. the way we design our transportation systems ultimately determines not just what we have access to and who has access to it, but also has great influence on the land use and two things together have a big impact on people's quality of life. i also know from my own personal experience how important public

transit can be in meeting people's needs and i know from professional experience thats the a complex endeavor from system design through the trade off decisions that often hah v to be made on daily basis. and i became interested in serving on the board because i think this board has the opportunity to shape is experience of the residents of san francisco and the tjpa can do this and with my professional background and personal experience, i hope to add value and am happy to answer any questions you may have. >> supervisor: are there any

questions from committee members? vice chair mandelman. >> supervisor: thank you, chair peskin and thank you, ms. jean-baptiste for your willingness to serve on the tjpa. i want to also thank you for your service on the transit performance working group that exercised that we have a year ago, although i am not sure how much of it is still immediately usable, but i was grateful for your contributions there. i wanted to see you could talk -- and chair peskin knows much more about the tjpa's path than i do, but if you have thoughts to share on where we have been

and where we're going, and kind of your vision for the tjpa and having these next sort of next phase meaning the downtown extension be a more elegant, cost effective, and timely exercise than the last part of it was. >> thank you, supervisor. and it was really quite a pleasure to work with you on that task force. that was a lot of fun. yeah, i mean, i think the reality is when you are working on something that is as complex as transportation infrastructure, there are a lot of, a lot of considerations that come into -- that come to bear on how quickly you were able to deliver something. with that being said, i think that we have this moment in time for the next couple of years

where we have i think a potential openness at the federal level to be responsive to what the bay area identifies as its priorities from the transportation infrastructure standpoint, and i would hope that the tjpa board would be able to be part of the conversation in terms of getting the region to a point where we can speak with one voice on what those priorities could be. i would say typically to get to that kind of clarity requires a fair amount of coordination and collaboration because we have so many things that we are trying to solve for at the same time. but the way that the infrastructure intersects and ultimately lands in san francisco has such a profound bearing on the connectivity of the region all the way from the south and really up to sacramento that i think we are in this pivotal position to be holding those conversations. i would hope some of my

experience of working in a complex, government setting would be valuable in being able to provide some efficiency going forward. but i also think that this conversation around what our priorities are going to be and how we make the connectivity happen is going to be really critical as well to get to a shared vision that is then easier to implement. >> thank you. >> thank you, vice chair mandelman. member chan, any questions or comments? >> supervisor: thank you, chair peskin. and it is with great pleasure to be here today just to have the opportunity to join in the decision making process for the transbay joint powers authority appointment. as a former staffer for

supervisor maxwell who sat on that seat for quite some time during her tenure, i do understand that that body really is focussing and has always been focussing issues and transportation issues really in that area. so representing the west side just kind of want to get your take, ms. jean-baptiste and what are your thoughts of while it is a huge task and just think about transit in the regional sense. any thoughts on how do we bridge that gap in terms of where the east side of the city versus the west side will connect in a holistic way? >> how do you make sure you have the appropriate connectivity and

one of the things we all know is that designing a system that lacks that kind of secondary first or last mile connection makes it much less usable and certainly needs to be a conversation as we go forward. i think fran is somewhat unique among bay area cities with having, frankly, better public transit access and connection than many of the other cities do. with that being said, it has to be part of the design and consideration or we limit the effectiveness. ultimately we want this system to be something that people can use from all parts of the city and all parts of the region. awe thank you for that question and answer. alicia, the tjpa was the creation of then assembly member

carol migdon at the request of then mayor willie brown jr. and was in essence another redevelopment agency, but with a different hat and a different mission. and phase one of that obviously was the building of the transbay terminal. and the second phase is, of course, bringing at a minimum caltrain into that facility and hopefully some day high speed rail with visions of a second crossing that may go through that facility. what i would like to visit with you about and there's actually a body of work that was done under the auspices of the county transportation authority, and there is no right answer to this, but what you envision as

the future of the tjpa, both in the near term and the longer term, if you want to ruminate on that. >> i do think that that phase 10 action is really essential. and of course, we have to go in stages and make sure that the trains can actually make it up into the central location and on over, but i again would hope that sitting in this center of the regional connection as the terminal now does would put us in a position to be thinking about how to make sure that we have the connectivity going north, going east, going south as well. and i agree i am very hopeful that high speed rail will eventually find its way here. i think that it will take some concerted effort to actually make it happen.

and probably need to be thinking about how to ensure that it gets to san jose to begin with. so i would hope that one of the things that i think we have struggled with as a region is a little bit of a lack of coordinated service planning. i would hope in the conversations we would lay the ground work for, again, the broader regional vision of how we maintain connection. and i know that we have had this moment recently where people have felt like maybe public transit isn't going to be the future, but i can't imagine a successful bay area without public transportation and i think we need to double down on investment rather than walk away from it. >> thank you for ruminating. and let's open this up to public comment for item number one.

>> members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 592 7527. press pound and pound again. if you haven't done so, dial star 3 to join to speak. the system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. do you have any members of the public for public comment at this time? >> can you hear me now? >> yes. please proceed. >> great. day did pillpal on this item i short alicia jean-baptist ex-and i have known her a long time. we have had highs and lows, but she's pretty great. i know she will do well on the

tjpa. and can we have the next caller please? >> you may want to turn off the radio or television. i do hear the delay on the system. speaker, you may begin your public comment. >> mr. chair, that completes the queue. public comment is closed. and ms. jean-baptiste.

thank you for an adult life of public service to the city and county of san francisco and the bay area at large in the interest of public transportation and good city and regional planning and with that, i would like to make a motion to move this to the full board of supervisors. mr. clerk, on that motion, a roll call please. >> i believe the motion is to -- >> to appoint alicia jean-baptiste to seat three with a residency waiver if i am correct. >> you are correct. it does require residency waiver. she lives in the east bay by night but in the city of city of san francisco by day and the residency waiver is absolutely deserved in this particular instance. i would like to move this with recommendation with a residency waiver to the full board of supervisor. that is the motion.

>> on that motion, member mandelman. >> aye. >> mandelman, aye. member chan? >> aye. >> chan, aye. >> chair peskin? >> aye. >> aye. the motion passes without objection. >> thank you, mr. clerk. thank you, ms. jean-baptiste. good luck. i'll be calling you all the time as will tillie chang and the new chair of the county transportation authority, chair mandelman, and with that, mr. clerk, the next item please. >> clerk: item two is a motion confirming the mayoral appointment of carmen chu as city administrator for a five-year term beginning february 1, 2021, pursuant to chart sectioner 3.104. i believe there is a request to possibly consider this matter as a committee report.

>> president: thank you, mr. young. colleagues, members of the public, this is one of the most important non-elected positions in the government of city and county of san francisco. this is something that happens quite rarely wherein a new city administrator is nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the board. this is a position that much like the controller is a neutral, nonpolitical position in government. as we know, naomi kelly, the former city administrator, resigned effective the end of this month of january of 2021. the mayor of the city and county london breed has nominated the assessor recorder, former

supervisor, carmen chu, to fill that position. ms. chu is before us today. i want to say for the record while i do have a number of questions that i think that ms. chu is remarkably well qualified to run some 25 agencies that are under the purview of the city administrator's office, and with that, colleagues, if you have any opening comments, please make them now. we'll have plenty of time for questions thereafter. and if not, or have you have any opening comment, i will call upon aseser to recorder chu for her opening statement. are there any opening comments from members? supervisor chan.

>> supervisor: thank you, chair peskin. it is -- i most definitely agree the fact that assessor chu is qualified for the position. i am grateful that mayor breed is nominating her as city administrator. knowing that a assessor chu helped professionalize the recorder's office in 2013. and with staff budget and the recorder's office and budget office and a billion dollars of tax revenue annually to our state and county of san francisco. so it is tremendously

challenging always, i'm sure to find the checks and balances, making sure that we -- especially the local corporations who pay their fair share that i think aseser to recorder chu demonstrated to do so. on a personal note, i am definitely pleased to see that assessor recorder chu has the type of the chinese american community in san francisco for a very long time. and that we do need representation for our community in city government. that is including 1/3 of the population of asian americans in this city. so i look forward and confident to have conversations with them. i look forward to it.

thank you. >> thank you, supervisor chan. seeing no questions from vice chair mandelman, madam assessor recorder chu, the floor is yours. >> thank you so much, president or chair peskin. >> awe i want to thank you for the opportunity to be before you and your consideration of my nomination for the role of city administrator. it certainly is a big responsibility and one that i take very seriously. so i welcome the conversation that we have today. i think it is absolutely important that we have transparency and trust in our relationships to make sure that we continue to move the city forward. i thank you for the opportunity. and i especially want to thank you, chair peskin, for working with us to schedule this meeting to expeditiously and having this opportunity. and i think as chair peskin

mentioned earlier, i am currently serving as assessor-recorder and the organization is about 150-person large. and we bring in about $3 billion in revenue every year. much of that revenue goes to support many of the vital services. when i first began as assessor, i think one of the primary things that i really focused on was trying to figure out what were the opportunities in my organization, what were the things that i needed to pursue, whether they be things that people like to hear about in headlines or not, what were the things that i needed to invest in in the organization in order to help us run better. the consequences of that having an organization that really helps support the general city services in san francisco. to me that was something that was incredibly important. equally important was also setting standards and making sure that we took a look at our systems and our practices to ensure that we were carrying out our job as ethically and as fair as we possibly could. this is something especially

critical with a taxation agency like the assessor's office. i want to take a moment to thank my team at the assessor's office. we have done so many things that people may have thought were insurmountable, reversing a decades old backlog to bring in revenue above and beyond expected. we brought down the appeals backlog in coordination with the clerk of the board. in addition to that, we've implemented many, many system improvements that have helped to run our organization whether it's be our launches of the new public records system just this august or today i am happy to announce we have launched phase i of the new property tax replacement system. these are great advancements to do our job better, but they are exactly those kind of core functions and core investments that we need to be doing in order to run better as a city.

i think back to my time in the city service and i started with city and county of san francisco back in 2004 and i started off as an analyst in the mayor's budget office and eventually became deputy director there. and ended up serving on the board of supervisors alongside with chair peskin at that time, and then eventually became assessor. through that lens and understanding the legislative branch of government and understanding the operational side and how we deliver services and to bring a good perspective to the role as city administrator. and i recognize this is a really big one and is not only the organization that provides direct support, oversight and

services to many departments like the animal care facilities or entertainment commission and mayor's office of disability and transgender niche tifrs and convention facilities to name a few. it is also the organization that oversees critical function and policies that impact city operation. things like information technology and real estate and procurement and the management of the city fleet and capital planning and how people access services through 311 and it is important that we do our job well and take a look at all opportunities and areas because we have a real chance to improve services across the board and across the city. and the important role of the city administrator and is a place that has the bird's eye view and of many intercity departments and when the mayor and the board have different ideas and different initiatives

to lift and create better services is a place that can serve as your partner to make sure we are thinking about all the different pieces that come with running a city function or improving or changing the city service. and i hope that through the lens of my experience i'll be able to value and how you pursue policy going forward. i will leave it at that for now. i know there must be a lot of questions that will come and am excited to share with you what some of the priorities would be as city administrator and i think that first and foremost we know that the immediate priority that we have is to make sure that we are supporting the covid response and our recovery and that is extremely important and the city administrator's office plays a direct role in a lot of that response. whether it was the procurement of personal protective equipment

and locating facilities for the emergency operations or sites you see coming online for vaccination or for testing, whether it's to make sure that we have an i.t. infrastructure that can communicate the things that we are doing or how people sign up for services as well as communications work, not to mention all of the dfw workers that the city administrator team is currently deployed doing. we know that our function right now has a very, very direct role in how it is that the city responds and how it is that we move forward. and i look forward to continuing to full that role to make sure we do everything we can to support our response. the other pieces that i dig into the policies and essential support and the planning investment that will pay off for the city in the long run and really evaluating whether we need to be changing any of the

practices and procedures to make sure that we do it better across the city. i want to make sure that we're continuing to focus on the racial equity plan that our office has put together, especially across the board with 25, 30 departments underneath it having a strong racial equity plan will go a long way to making sure that san francisco has opportunity and growth for all individuals in the city, but it is also important that we haven't forgotten this idea about continuing to build public trust. you may see what does that mean for you. this is not something that is new for me. when i joined the members of the board of supervisors, it was also something that was part of my history removed from office --

and this idea about restoring public trust was essential then and continues to be in everything single position and i believe that public trust is built with the things that are wrong in how reoperate and being okay with sharing the vulnerabilities and saying there is a problem with a particular part of the businesses and we may have a difference of opinion about how to tackle those things and working to deliver on them is how we build that trust. there wasn't a whole lot of trust in government when my parents immigrated because they

didn't speak english and didn't know how to interact with government services. i think about them every day. if as government we can simply provide good services to people and there is an open door to how we help them and are honest and forthright in what we do, it would go a long way to restoring public trust. i look forward to working closely with you as we move the city forward during the difficult time with the pandemic and open to any questions you may have. >> thank you, former supervisor, current assessor recorder, and nominee to the most important position of city administrator for the opening comments. by the way, i was really struck by what you said because i will never forget that the former district supervisor was engaged in criminality and served time

in prison and i never connected that to the current dynamic, albeit, it is quite different. but you definitely in my opinion bestow honor on the office and got us past that terrible look that happened when the district supervisor was charged an convicted of criminal wrong doing and left this board of supervisors in the year 2006, which seems like several lifetimes ago, long before covid. i do want to say before i open this up aened i do have some questions and i am opening this up to my colleagues that i do have to say for the record having been around here for a couple of decades on and off

that the job that you have done is superlative. relatively small in the grand scheme and i say it proudly and i am an umpire and i call it like i see it. i was here 20 years ago when -- i am not going to name names or speak ill of the dead when the city and county of san francisco was a laughing stock of the 58 counties in this city and state and made better by the successor and made better by that individual successor, but you raise it beyond the level of expectation and i say it because it is a matter of fact.

i think that bodes well should they see fit to confirm the mayor's nomination. ened i do have a few difficult questions as well as form 700 and emails that we have received and is my duty to ask and have answered, but with that i will turn it over to my colleagues. questions or comments? >> both. i want to echo the superlatives that have been offered about carmen chu who i did not know well and by reputation i have

the general sense that we have improved significantly during your tenure and especially during the pandemic when you have strayed -- to everyone's benefit, so far outside of your lane at the request of the mayor and you have been there through so many aspects of insuring that the city's response to the pandemic itself and the economic devastation from it has been better. you have been a voice for

clarity and common sense. but i have one question i forwarded to you that i want to address and things that i hope you will work on that i will work with now. and you have seen the email i forwarded to you and is not clearly clear from that email what the specific choice that you may or may not have made made was, but in general terms there is a debate and domestic

partnership was a way to recognize to the benefits not given to gay member and lesbians but not also given to straight people not in marriage relationships. consistently there has been a push for a broader understanding of domestic partnership as something that applies not just to same sex couples but consistently to moderate and conservative voices in pedestrian and state legislature have pushed back on that trying to limit the reach of domestic partnership. the assertion seems to be as i i understand it that you had choices to make about how to implement domestic partnership

leg and you opted for the narrower application only to straight people. >> thank you for the opportunity and for sharing the question with me in advance. the reason is because the reason of issues of domestic partnership is very complicated especially when it comes to state law and local registry as well. and first and foremost, one of the most important things is our office works very, very closely with the city attorney's office. we are constantly working with them especially in our transactions and which actually takes a look to see whether any change in ownership necessitates a re-assessment. to ultimately it comes down to terre hauting property tax

benefits for people who are married, not married or in domestic partnership status. one of the things that is important to me is to administer what is the loss and that is true for a tax agency to do that in a fair way. we have been working closely with the city attorney to make sure we understand it. in general i don't -- i read the email that you sent over to me and there might be confusion behind state registered and in general the state's property tax benefits are conferred through state actions. even if a local jurisdiction might want to change or to create a different action, it is regulated at the state. the registry does follow that way as well.

the state has created a domestic partnership registry after san francisco did. and san francisco, i should just say that the domestic partnership locally and has had a long, long history that we have seen with a lot of different nuances. even after the state set up the domestic registration process, they started to provide certain benefits through that process over time. it wasn't media that all benefits were converted to bridges who were stejed at the state level and started off with health benefits and the ability to access or be by individual sides when there was an and granting community rights similar to what spouses get or are treated under and that

evolved into property tax benefits. and i guess the distinction is a state registry and a local registry. with the state rules granted for equalization. that is all to say that i am not really sure if there was a specific issue that the person was writing about because typically when we have seen some of these things come through, we worked with the city attorney to understand what is our legal obligation and how to implement the law. there was an instant where an individual, for example, was registered locally and would have qualified locally and didn't register at the state level. they didn't register at the state level but did at san francisco level. after consulting with the city attorney, we had to do what the law required which was we had to basically re-assess the property because they didn't qualify for

the benefit that the state registration would have allowed them. >> supervisor: so -- couple registered locally is not able to register at the state level, right? >> well, this has since changed. there's more. >> supervisor: okay. >> upon that action, what we were able to do is that so we had to to deny that exclusion and what we did afterwards is we worked with approach the state and to provide more permission to create a window where if they were locally registered to benefit as if they were registered at the state. that did get passed. that actually was something that was something to say we heard

about your case and had to do with the law requires us to do do at that time. we went to the state legislature to change that rule and that law. we were to awe ply again and when we have seen the instance come through, we will take a look at it to try or best to understand what is legally required of the law. what do we have the leeway to do or not dao. if we don't have the leeway to grant the exclusion, we would take it to the body that would be required to grant it. the one thing that i would say is in terms of the opposite sex marriage, former supervisor weaner and senator passed sb30 that just went into effect january 21, 2020. i am not as familiar as this but it has changed much of this now

because in the past whereas in the state they would have allowed for seniors who were opposite sexes to register domestically and related to railroad benefits or other things that would not have been able to keep had they gotten married. to change the law so any individual whether you are same sex and are able to register at the state for domestic partnership sta us. this is now more permissible called an ekwef lent of marriage that lacks the connotation from

culture that typically comes with it. a lot of this will be changing now. the staff has been apprised by the city attorney about what this now means for property tax benefits as well. i am not sure if the issue that was raised is still an issue, and i don't know if there is a particular instance. >> i am sure if that was not a satisfactory instance, i will hear about it as well. and thank you for taking the time on that item. and i have a few more items i want to raise, although we won't spend as much time. >> and no job, i mean, very impressive ms. chu, that you understand every aspect of that piece of public policy. >> thank you. the remainder of my questions i think are mostly in that public trust portion of your priority

with the city administrator. and couple of them relate to i.t. and i.t. projects that have languished in departments that either under the city administrator or over which there has been influence. so one is the justice project. which is this i.t. project that has been going on for many, many years and maybe a decade. maybe more than a decade. and the notion seems to be simple. the motion is we have so many entities that are dealing with folks who are criminal justice involved. shouldn't that be able to share

information effectively? shouldn't some of that information become publicly available? so the public can more clearly understand what is happening with crime, crime rates, clearance rates, and ultimate recidivism and things that would be interesting for the agencies them to know about and the public to know about. and this appears to be a project that other than president yee, at least i think his perception was that not everyone was taking it seriously. the need for me as a city supervisor seems obvious and urgent so i would love to have thoughts on justice and making this criminal justice data easily shared, actionable and to some extent publicly available.

>> thank you. i think this justice project is a time that i can remember from my time as an analyst and the honest truth is i haven't followed it to this day as closely. and i think what comes to mind in terms of how i think about it or talk about it is first and foremost, i would like to make sure i understood where that project is and also what has been perceived to legal barriers and making information publicly available. and in the assessor's office, i am a big fan of making sure we open the data as much as we can to help us understand how we do our work. we didn't have the automated system to understand what the backlog looked like and a number of other interdependencies within our organization that we

didn't have visibility into and this is a similar parallel system to the justice system. you don't have good information with data that could be beneficial for organizations to run better or even for the public or lawmakers to know more about. it becomes problematic. you don't have visibility into the issue. and i would first want to know about where it is, what the law alouse and what are the barriers and could some of the barriers be removed. law cans be changed if there is a will and there is a good reason for it, right? and the other piece that i reflect upon especially given the i.t. projects that we have lifted in the assessor's office is that for many organizations when you take a look across them, we're all resource and really different ways when it comes to i.t. expertise. but not only that, but specific kind of i.t. expertise you need to implement a new system. it's very different to have i.t.

professionals who help us with setting up the desktop support or to help people understand how the network works versus someone who can help with change management or to how it is that you need to project manage different system implementation changes. so i think when i came into the organization, we didn't really have a very deep bench in terms of the i.t. infrastructure in the office, much less the i.t. folks and talent we needed to run major system changes. so i suspect that some of these organizations because there are various ones of them where we're all connected where you have typically law enforcement organizations that are heavily kind of thinking about law enforcement, they may not be thinking about the i.t. infrastructure they have. and i would suspect they also may not have the right kind of mixture of skill set or other things to be able to potentially lift what is necessary for big system changes. even now we are really thankful and really happy that we're launching phase i of the property tax system, but it

takes constant care and feeding. it takes sort of constant attention and resourcing to make sure we're able to be successful for the next round as well. so i think the way that i would approach that is to understand, again, where these projects -- where the project is, what are the impediments to the sharing of data or the revealing or transparency of data, but then also are we resourcing this project the right way in organizations and centrally to carry out something like this. and if not, how would we fix that, right? because i think that becomes the bigger question overall about the delivery i.t. and on a separate note as well, i think we do have also some ideas about how we potentially procure i.t. services. we run it very much the same way we typically have going through r.f.p. processes and so on, but by the time you kind of go through a whole process to figure out what it is that you are bidding for, you go through the bidding process, and then you go through the contracting

process, sometimes by that time your processes have already changed. and so i think that there are also just generally questions about how to deliver i.t. systems, how do we deliver i.t. services in the city that is worth looking into. so it's a big one. it's a huge one to tackle. and i am sure i'll be looking into that more because i have seen how much it can be helpful for the city to run better and how core it is to that process. >> i appreciate the way you are thinking about this. i committed to then president yee as he was leaving the board to try to continue to prioritize this, and i am very interesting in how we are gathering and tracking public safety data and would like to work with you on this going forward. a related project that will land with you, should you be confirmed, is i think the d.b.i.

permit tracking system, or the overall permit tracking system. which appears to have been another sort of hot mess and i know that city administrator kelly has -- had spent a lot of time on this, but the notion that we have been unable to implement an effective permit tracking system over more than a decade is one of the real sort of, seems to me, failures in government. whether corrupt or not, or whether related to corruption or not, is just an example of government not working well and may raise some of the same issues as justice. i don't know. but i look forward to your digging in on that, and to the extent that ier to board of supervisors can be -- that i or the board of supervisor cans be helpful, please let us know. another project that we have had some conversation -- i have had some conversations, first with ms. kelly and now with going

forward with you and along with the controller, has been and this came up in your discussion of whey happened with justice, but the very complicated contract requirements that are -- that apply differently and were implemented differently in departments across the city. that slowed things down. that aggregated over a long, long time. and that we don't seem to have great ways maybe, at least this is my perception and happy to be disabused of this, we don't have great ways of looking at it from a city wide perspective. the controller's office has taken some looking into this, but definitely seems like something that in your new position you can help spearhead. we have some ideas and have been working with folks in the relevant parts of city government. but it seems like we should --

part of rooting out and more about checking but part of it is about making processes simpler and clearer. and so i hope, you know, we can work on that together. just two more. one, you know, i did not support the public advocate, at least in this last go around. and one of the reasons was that it was not clear to me that another politician was the right person to do the checking in on all parts of city government that would have someone peering over their shoulder occasionally. you will think about how shoulders should be peered over. and i think there's, again, tremendous inconsistency across departments in the way things like contracting are done and

even the way the same laws are implemented by different departments. and the opportunities for variation but also just bad action are great, i think, when we don't have systems for checking in on what people are doing. i want to do things that make it more complicated, but if there are ways to have the feedback membering microorganism and people who look back at some of what the controller function i think is, but if there are ways for us to think about doing that more effectively across departments, we're trying to think about it. you'll be in a better position to think about how to do it. and i look forward to continuing your conversations with you about that. and the last thing is, and this is a more immediate thing. one of the things that administrator kelly had gotten high marks for, i believe, from some of the labor partners was

her work on ppe, and ensuring that the city had an adequate supply of ppe for our and for folks at laguna honda and although we have lots of good news about where the pandemic is and the case numbers in the bay area are dropping and the vaccine, however challenging the rollout, and more people -- not as many as we would like, but more people are getting vaccinated. [please stand by]

>> supervisor peskin: i really to appreciate the questions you made particularly around i.t. member chan, the floor is yours. >> supervisor chan: thank you chair peskin. i think, the question for me is that at times, i do understand. there's so much to do. so many things that we can pull

ideas into what the city administrator should be doing. i want top learn the guiding principles that you have. really, while at times, it seems like animal care control department -- may not be the most significant in the department. the job is big but at the same time, it's really keeping the details of our city and keeping the city running. it's a big job. you have many people under your

jurisdiction if you were to be confirmed as the city administrator. i would love to understand how do you see the city administrator's role in terms of oversight for the city department? also to know that it's a complicated system. some of the city departments also have commission oversight and with expertise and jurisdiction all under the umbrella of the administrator's office. i have the opportunity to really get some support from our budget analyst office to provide me a memo to navigate the concern about the city administrator's office. not just under city administrator but over the years, how it's really

structured and would like for you to talk about that in terms of this role of how do you envision the city administrator's role overseeing the city departments along with commission and accountability and oversight? thank you. >> thank you supervisor chan. big question, for sure. i think a few things. when i think about the role as city administrator, it is certainly different and much more expansive than my role as assessor. i think in every single public service role that i've been in, my ethos is really that, there's always more we can do to do better to make sure we're doing our organization in a better way. this is true in lessons taught from my parent's restaurant. my mom called it your eyes work. when you see something do it. it's not matter it's a

responsibility, if you see something that's wrong, you fix it and you work on it. that is the ethos that i have going into all of my public service as whether an analyst or supervisor and now my role as city administrator. i really do believe in the role that good government can play to help people in their lives. i think that's a second big piece in terms of how i think about public service. it's not about the public service for the sake of public service, it's about public service to better people's lives. if they call they have an animal in need, they feel they have government that work for them. i think, there's a big piece of me that feels no matter what role that we're in, there's

something that we can be doing to do better in the role. there's a need to remember that at the end of the day it's a public service to the city and public at large and what's in the best interest of san francisco. the role of city administrator is a very large one. i think some of the comments that i heard from member on this committee today reflect that. there are ton of issues where they were talking about i.t. issues, contracting issue and procurement issues that does need a critical eye in. just because we've done it one way for a long time, doesn't mean there isn't opportunity to simplify things. supervisor mandelman mentioned, in order to help make compliance easier, it doesn't mean there's an opportunity to deliver across in one department but that we can make it easier for all of the city. when you say, how do i view the role as city administrator, it really is a very special place

that has the ability to think about policy, to be partners with you and with the mayor to say, how do we think about changing, how we using that has an impact that's even wider than a department. that has impact potentially across multiple organizations. that's one of the unique roles and perspectives that the city administrator's office can bring to the table. the whole question about whether we're resource to take on these issues is another one. we will look forward to working with you to figure out what that looks like and what are the thing we need to prioritize. that being said, i do think that the city administrator's office has a big role to play when it's thinking about city wide policy, when you think about city wide processes for contracting, procurement and real estate. how do we -- it's something that

needs to happen. many folks whether they are the mayor's office or the board, you have many things you're looking at as well. we look forward to be the organization to thinking through those challenges. i think the other piece, it's not just about this central bird's eye view, we protect direct services, direct administrative support for many organizations that are smaller. i say this because, even in the assessor's office, we're a mid-size organization with 150 people. it is really hard to be able to have all of the services you need to run an organization well. you make sure you have enough hr support, i.t. support, contracting support, procurement support and not all small organizations when you have sort of four people organizations or five people organizations have the capacity to hire an

accountant and hr person. i think that's in general, in a nutshell, how i think the importance of the role of city administrator where we have opportunities to partner with you. even in the beginning comments that chair peskin mentioned, i do view the city administrator's role as a neutral party very similar to the controller office where our job is to share with you, our best insights, our best thoughts how we might want to look at changes to policy.

i hope that answers your questions. >> supervisor chan: when it comes to city departments that also have commission oversight. not all commissioners are equal in terms of size and expertise and authority exercised over the city and the departments that they oversee. how do you see -- i look forward to working with you on that. sometimes that is where the problem really is where some commission really have specific way of overseeing a department why other commissions are different. reporting both to the executive branch and legislative branch, they seem to have a different way to go about them. how do you see the city administrator's role to really work with the commission? i guess it's the consistency

that i would love to see how they work with legislative branch, executive branch including yourself as our city administrator. >> i look forward to exploring that issue what you're seeing what you're perceiving challenges to understand that. as a whole, i think about the role of as commissions and they're oversight role. >> supervisor chan: specifically will be contracts. you can see some contracts are really approved by the commission alone and that is good but some of them that will actually be able to come through the board or what would say a second opinion, a layer of vetting and approval process. how do you see specifically -- i don't know want to go down just contract approvals. there's many ways making sure a

city departments can be held accountable and have transparency the way they operate. beyond just contracting process. that is my concern when it comes to commission oversight for the city departments. >> you're right. some departments or some commissions do have more contracting. you mentioned some of the examples that you see before where some of the contracts have come through the board of supervisors. some of the departments may have like -- m.t.a. or p.u.c. may have different contracting authority. i have to dig into more to understand how they are vested differently. overall, what you're getting at, how, i think, how do you make sure the right eyes and oversight over actions of all of our city organizations. i think the way i think about it is a few things.

one, we want to make sure there are no kind of single points of failure. you want to make sure that you have multiple eyes on different kinds of decisions that are made by the city. especially the ones that are really consequential that have a big impact on the city. i think there are ways to figure out is reporting the best way to do it or in the interest of the decision, do you want that to flow through different kind of bodies. it make since to have things go through the board and what kind of things can go through the board or what things can be done at the commission level. there are opportunities to look at these elements. i look forward to working with you on that. >> supervisor chan: likewise. that's what i would love to work with you on if you're confirmed. inpromise this is my last question.

i will not delay chair peskin questions as well. i think that we kind of briefly talked about so many aspects. it is you saying that -- i think it's a great culture and great thinking the way that when you see something not right, you fix it. how do we make sure that mindset from where you are at really translate into all the city departments that you oversee? for me, the wait i'm seeing, i do really firmly believe that people are resources as a city government. it's really about who are in leadership of positions and how do they manage and facilitate our daily operations of city government. knowing there's acting director at the moment in our city

department, i would love to learn your approach to be a hiring or just kind of view that the leadership role of city departments and how do you go about going about boosting up the morale and really help get restore public trust and get our city government efficient andeth cam -- ethical and functioning mode. >> i view every single hire as an opportunity. i looked at it that way when we approached the assessor's office as well. it's not about not only hiring someone for their technical abilities but also for their desire to want to create a better place. meaning kind of good morale, meaning supporting workers. as a whole, i believe that our

city employees are good people and want to do the right thing. i think when you talk about how do you create -- you like the approach of people all kind of taking accountability and doing the best that they can in their job. i think it's not just the person at the leadership level but it's also empowering your workers to say, if have an idea, we're going to explore it. we'll explore how an idea you have to improve an service. we actually are going to take those kinds of comments and ideas seriously. that really empowers people to say, i can be the change. i can be -- i can see a problem. i can raise it. i will believe that my leadership will take those ideas seriously. i think it doesn't happen overnight. this is something you have to continue to do as a practice in an organization to be able to

embed that culture in it. the city administrator's office has done quite a lot. they've done a lot of work under the leadership of former city administrator, well soon to be naoimi kelly and others. there's an opportunities for more and better. we'll be looking forward to doing that. it comes down to really empowering individuals to believe that they can make those changes too. that's important. >> supervisor chan: that's something we want to see the best of people and want to believe they're going to do the right thing. i'm not going to take much more of this time. i really look forward to put in place a mechanism that really have a check and balances in the legislative branch and executive branch working along with the city administrator's office to

make sure that there's accountability and transparency in the people's work. i look forward to that and i am going to turn it back over to chair peskin. thank you so much. >> thank you supervisor. i want to clarify when i say that i believe most of our employees are good people, i absolutely believe that and they want to do the right thing. i think it's important for us to put systems in place to make sure there are checks. that there is transparency and there's multiple eyes on it. i think that is sort of have both. >> chair peskin: thank you supervisor chan. thank you assessor chu. with that before we open up to public comment. all the members of this committee are in receipt of some e-mails with certain

allegations, which i have personally explored and i believe that i've concluded that this was all on the up and up. i will be remised if i did not publicly in interest of transparency, ask these questions around allegations. i'm not apologizing, i'm noting that this is a sensitive personal subject but this is a public position. these questions really need to be asked and answered relative to a property tax reduction ms. chu that you received on real property that you own then and now. long before you were assessor. this was during the great

recession a dozen years ago where pursuant to a state proposition temporary property tax relief was granted for your property and other properties and but there are allegations that this might have been a function of impropriety. you and i have discussed this. i have done additional independent research into this particular matter and what happened dozen years ago. i wanted to ask you to respond as you and i privately discussed as to those allegations? >> yeah. thank you so much for the opportunity to do that. especially in this time and especially for rule like this, it's really important that there's no doubt from not only the mayor but the board of supervisors that you are selecting a person who you believe can carry the office

with integrity and to move the city forward in that way. i welcome these questions and thank you for the opportunity to address them. to start off with regards to the e-mail that you talked about, i did not ask for a reduction in my property taxes. what i can tell former assessor at that time, right after the great recession, reviewed a number of different properties. , especially with a downturn in the housing market. there were probably thousands of homes that were reviewed during that time right after the market crashed in 2008. under state revenue and tax code section 51a2, the assessor is actually required to temporarily reduce the property assessments in the market value of the home has fallen below of the value. we saw it was unusual. we saw this across the state of california during that time in

2009, i believe there were about 2.4 million properties in california that saw reduction under prop 8 that you mentioned. san francisco, we weathered that storm that downturn much better than any other counties did. we never saw a total roll value assessment drop in san francisco whereas other places did. looking back at assessor's annual report in 2009. he described some of the actions that his office took at that time. specifically, they proactively reviewed properties and granted reduction based on local market in neighborhood information. they had a total of 14,708 homes that were reviewed. of those that were reviewed, they were homes that were sold between january 2004 and june 2008 depending on the

neighborhood. my home was purchased in 2006, we had thousands, we were one of the thousands of homes that were proactively reviewed by the assessor office. i didn't request any reduction or review. what i can tell, there were over 300 homes in the immediate neighborhood around my home in the parkside that also received reductions during that time. i hope that helps to answer and provide information based on what i was able to find from former assessor ting's time. we're looking at similar actions right now as a result of the pandemic. for example, we're not necessarily looking at single family homes, we haven't seen evidence in the marketplace, we've seen softening of the condo market as a result of the pandemic. we're looking at data to decide

whether or not reduction warranted to condos recently purchased as a result of the changing market condition. these are things that we would do normally as a result of section 51a2. >> chair peskin: thank you for that thorough answer and research that i also found that other counties proactively bestowed proposition a temporary property tax reductions. some of them actually across the board and in other cases in a more targeted fashion has happened in san francisco a dozen years ago as being carefully contemplated today. thank you for that response to that sensitive question. many years ago, when i think i was president of board of supervisors, instituted a board rule that requires form 700 to

be filed, statements of economic interests prior to a hearing of this committee. i neglected to mention in the previous item, item number 1, form 700 of the previous applicant, have reviewed yours which are extremely thorough and available online for the public to see. i note and should grin that i failed to bestow upon you on the occasion of the birth of your child, a gift. i'm delighted to know everybody from the mayor and others, did appropriately give you gifts all of which you reported. that is not what i am asking about. this is another sensitive

question. your form 700s do indicate a gift from an individual who is the subject of a federal indictment and charges who is connected to the web of the corruption scandal that we are experiencing and that is walter wong. your form 700 indicates a amount of $200. which is entirely legal and appropriately reported. i like to ask you if you can give us a little more information as to that gift. i will be remised if i did not ask these kind of questions for this most important function in our city and county government. >> absolutely. with regards to that gift, i was invited by the lee family to attend a community celebration and provide remarks about mayor

ed lee. this was following unveiling of a relief. the event was attended by more than 100 member. you had community members there, representative of the city and at the reception food was served there. even under form 700, food that's available at an event which official makes a speech is not required disclosure. i reported it anyway on form 700 just to provide transparency. >> chair peskin: thank you. all is good trotter. thank you for that candid response. there are many other things that we can talk about and touch on. i'm very interested in the future medical examiners office, we're all interested if the future of public works.

that is implicated with that young scandal with former head public works who is under indictment. we'll have plenty of time for hearings on these items. i'm getting ready to introduce some legislation around the medical examiner office. we'll leave that for another day. colleagues, if you do not have any questions or comments at this time, i would like to open this up to public comment on item number 2. mr. clerk, do we have members of the public for this item? if so, how many? >> clerk: at this time, we have approximately 20 listeners and 12 members of the public waiting in line to speak. members of the public who wish

to provide public comment call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 592 7527. press pound. system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. first caller please. >> first speaker. >> i'm president of speak, sunset parkside education in action committee and state and federal legislative liaison for the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods. speaking on my own behalf. i like to follow-up on my written comment and strong support for the appointment of carmen chu as city administrator. written comments including praise for her service as board

of supervisors, phrase for her continued commitment to the neighborhood through attending events such as the sunset community festival and meetings of organizations such as the caravan merchants. in praise for her work as chair of the economic recovery task force on top of her duties. i have attended the capital planning committee meetings during the past four years. i appreciate the role the city administrator as chair of the capital planning committee. i believe she will bring her expertise to this role and to other departments under the c.a.o.'s purview. in conclusions, there are folks in district 4 are excited about the possibility having one of our own as the city administrator. i know i am one. thank you. >> clerk: next spear please.

>> good morning chair peskin, vice chair mandelman and supervisor chan. this is my first time on public comment. i would like to echo my support of mayor reed's nomination of assessor recorder and former board member carmen chu. i had the privilege of knowing carmen for nearly 16 years. i had the privilege of swearing her in as supervisor with now current clerk. her appointment as city administrator will be an asset to the people of san francisco as she has worked with the community so well and to her extended city family. i would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the clerk of the board staff and the clerk for continuing to provide these services to the public via

remote and during these crucial covid unusual times. all stay well. thank you. >> next caller please. >> good morning supervisors. i'm speaking today both as a resident in district 4 as well as ceo of self-help for the elderly. which is elder care service provider in the bay area. permanently -- personally i've been working with carmen for the past 14 years. with everybody's comment, we know that carmen is very qualified for the job of city administrator. given her background and her experience as assessor recorder and now district 4 supervisor.

most recently, as cochair of the san francisco economic recovery task force. carmen has visited centers in sunset and other senior centers many times. she is never shy asking for what they need, particularly in areas of safety, healthcare, expansion of elder care services, transportation and language access and immigration issues. when carmen speaks, she always speaks from her heart and if she promises to help, she always will we trust her. carmen's presence in lot of public meetings and public events, always brings honesty, sincerity and enthusiasm and truly a public servant spirit, which is really ready to listen and serve the people in our city. our community loves her and very

proud of her. i urge your unanimous vote to approve assessor chu to be our next city administrator. she will bring again like other speakers said already, the expertise, her rich experience, her work ethics, her integrity and fairness and a strong compassion to serve the people in san francisco. we're very proud of her. >> next caller please. >> good morning supervisors. this is charles head i'm president for the coalition of it san francisco neighborhoods. we report over -- we worked over the years with carmen chu. as a matter of fact, when i became recording secretary years

ago, i believe it was carmen that swore us it. she worked with us and she's the obvious choice for this. great office. she's served honorably as well in every office she's held. she's the obvious choice. i urge you to go for it and approve her for this great opportunity. thank you. >> next caller, please. >> hi everyone. my michelle. i'm the executive director of the richmond neighborhood center where we provide youth and family programs at public school site, home delivered grocery homes for homebound seniors. one of those program is the richmond community coalition, a group of richmond district

serving nonprofits and businesses who gather to collaborate and get important information. assessor chu has been there to provide important information from prop 19 to the family well forum. she has been a supporter of our small businesses, especially during the pandemic and by co-chairing the economic recovery task force. as a leader, she is respected and trusted. i remember a time when she came to an event for our seniors, it was a lunar new year event. so many of them came up to her and thanked her for her leadership. she listened to their concerns and responded with ideas on how to address them with such compassion. this is the kind of person we need in city government. someone who makes people feel heard, especially those who are vulnerable. my personal experience with carmen chu is very similar. she listens and responds with resources and opportunities,

based on her wealth of experience and knowledge. in every role she is in, she leads with integrity and an eye for efficiency. it is the highest regard that i support assessor chu's nomination to city administrator. thank you. >> next caller please. >> hi. i'm the executive director of community youth center. i'm also the co-chair of the a. p.i. council. we have over 56-member organization in san francisco. we serve 8000 youths, workforce

development and also school-aged programming. i'm calling to urge everyone support for assessor chu appointment to the city administrator position. i personally have also worked with assessor chu for the past 14 years. she has been a great leader and definitely demonstrate her leadership values of transparency and accountability and equity. i think that's couple of highlights i like to mention such as the family wealth forum, which is events that serves 3000 families in san francisco. she really understand where is the heart to reach community. she will do her best to reach out to those without a voice in our government. she understand the struggle and the treatments and the barriers of an immigrant family and how

vital that they are. with the covid-19 pandemic, she serve as a co-chair of san francisco economic recovery task force. she will bring over 100 members from different sectors from business to nonprofit to government to craft strategies and policy ideas for relief and long-term recovery efforts. for of single task, she holds very high level of integrity and important need of public trust that we all feel high confidence from her. >> next caller please. >> good morning. i'm jerry. i like to commend carmen chu for clearing up the multiyear

backlog of property tax assessments. however, i'm here today to raise a concern regarding potential favors grant to her that reflect the culture of corruption we find in our city. a former san francisco assessment appeals board member submitted a credible allegation that ms. chu received three property tax reductions. she was not entitled to receive when she was member of board of supervisors. receiving three individual property tax reductions is highly unusual. i recommend the rules committee approve ms. chu for the position as city administrator subject to the city attorney issuing a report that clears ms. chu of any wrong doing. city administrator of san francisco is the highest appointed position.

ms. kelly retire was an opportunity to conduct a search to address corruption in the department of of public works. this is one more missed opportunity to break the cycle of corruption in san francisco city government. thank you for the opportunity to address you. thank you. >> next caller please. >> good morning supervisors. first off, i want to thank supervisor peskin for expediting this hearing. confirming ms. chu. thank you for mayor breed for nominating carmen chu. i don't think i need to speak to her qualifications. she spoken to that well enough.

i wanted to give a personal anecdote about why i strongly support her nomination. in the past 10 years that i had the opportunity to know carmen and work with her and interact with her, number one, i have never started a conversation with her, even conversations about her family and friend, it does end how she can improve her office and be more responsive. it's really refreshing to have those genuine conversation. secondly, as you guys experienced here, i've never had a conversation with carmen where she doesn't provide details and insightful responses with significant level of follow-up in the danger of furthering the

stereotypes. i want to reiterate the support for confirming her nomination. if we can still do banquets, we'll be organizing one now to celebrate carmen's nomination and impending confirmation. thank you again. >> next caller please. >> hello everyone. i'm chair of the small business commission speaking on my own behalf and for identification purposes only. i have had the distinct honor and pleasure of working with carmen as member of the economic recovery task force where we worked together personally on land use issues, i had the honor of working with her at the small business commission. i had the honor working with her

on the california recovery fund. during times like pandemics, that's when you find out who is really has a heart in their right place and really focused. that was absolutely my experience with carmen. i know you all know, as i know, that she represents the best and brightest that san francisco has to offer. i recommend that you all unanimously approve her and role of city administrator, i know small business community would welcome her with open arms. with respect to the prior commenters post, i'm very much looking forward to attending that banquet that i think we should have after she is approved. thank you all. >> before we move on, i like to state that if you have not done

so, dial star 33 to be added to the queue. we have 16 listeners and 6 in line to speak. next caller please. >> good morning chair peskin and fellow supervisors. we have a unique opportunity to bring in a new city administrator. this is one of the biggest city governments in the whole entire united states based on the budget and then the number of people employed per capita. we need to ensure transparency in light of the recent corruption allegations that have rocked the city. let's not forget why we're getting a new city administrator. ms. kelly was not charged with any crime but her departure was

the result of the fallout from the fbi investigation that resulted in the demise of a number of city halls old hands. this would have been a perfect opportunity to bring an outsider with no prior working relationship with the city hall family. unfortunately, we're missing this opportunity. that's it. >> next caller please. please proceed. >> great. david pilpel again. i was very sad to hear of naoimi kelly's resignation from an important and tough job. i wish her and harlan the best and hope things turn out well or better for them. i strongly support carmen chu's appointment as the next city

administrator. i've known her a long time. i know that she will do well for all of us. she served us well as district 4 supervisor and assessor recorder. it's smart and well qualified. thank you very much. >> thank you, next caller please. >> yes, good morning supervisors. good morning supervisor chair peskin and also community members. i'm d.j., i'm the executive director of young community developers here in bayview hunters point. i'm calling to urge the rules committee to push through now assessor carmen chu. as we heard from previous callers, the work that she's done and how phenomenal she has been in various roles speaks for itself. i want to share briefly that i

have the opportunity most recently to work with now assessor carmen chu around prop 19. just a amount of information in the gratitude and things that we received from the community, speaks to who she is as a person. it speaks to who she is as an assessor. it speaks to who she will be as our next city administrator. i strongly urge and support the nomination to get pushed through for now assessor carmen chu. thank you for your time. >> next speaker. >> good morning. rodney fong resident of san francisco and chamber of commerce. i will lend my support for carmen chu as the next city administrator.

we watched carmen step in these jobs and grow into them. she will do the same thing as city administrator. just a level of detail, yet broad vision for san francisco. she will take into this new office with efficiency and accountability we all need. we are entering into a very difficult time right now. the next few years will be tough for san francisco. we need that type of leadership, city and stability and we're going to have to do more. please pursue this nomination. thank you very much. >> thank you. next caller.

please proceed. go ahead. >> i fully the appointment of carmen chu to become our administrator. she is a dedicated public servant. as assessor, carmen will go in transparent and equity. through the years, she has support our chinese community --

[indiscernible]. as co-chair, she has been working to support the recovery -- thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. i want to speak in favor of carmen chu's appointment. i've known her for several years. i think she is a wonderful

selection. i remember when she was appointed by gavin newsom. she was head of the budget office and staff in preparation of the city budget. very smart woman. she didn't want the job. they took her -- they put her name on the door as supervisor, then they took it off. later she changed her mind and they put her name back on. i watched her career as being the best supervisor in a long time for district 4. she went on as assessor recorder where she was terrific for years and years. she had very little budget to work with.

she did a great job. she obviously, she has a great experience helping stabilize departments. i think she will be a very calming influence in city hall, especially with all the corruption going on. she is somebody, i think, that people will come to know and come to feel comfortable with in the government has a lot of problems. i endorse carmen chu and think she will do a great job for the city of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you mr. wooding. you reminded me that not only did her predecessor go to jail but her predecessor, predecessor

went to jail. next speaker please. >> hello supervisors. my name is sophia, i'm cofounder of woman's march san francisco on the commission status of women. i'm a resident of district 1. it's my honor to be here today to speak on behalf of assessor carmen chu. there are many accomplishments i'm sure you're aware of. you've been hearing them. she is most definitely qualified for the job. i personally would rather speak to what i witnessed as a community leader. i met assessor chu after the first women's march, 2017. from the beginning she provided the team and i guidance and support. her team actually checked in regularly. we were invited to be a part of

the w challenge when she created in 2018 to encourage women to vote and be more engaged. she's somebody that does the work and is organized and works with integrity. she leads with values of transparency, accountability, access and equity. i'm honored to call her a mentor and also a friend. i hope the board of supervisors confirm assessor carmen chu to be our next city administrator. thank you so much. >> next speaker. >> i'm angie. i worked with carmen chu through the years. i have to say, i believe carmen

chu is an excellent choice for city administrator. i really admire her hard work and reaching out in the community and taking so much great initiative to allow us an assessor recorder. she made herself really accessible and put herself out there in the community, through events, through workshops, at the library, speaking at community festivals. she's put so much effort into having conversations with the community, with the people of san francisco in so many ways. i really admire her about that greatly admire her positive can

do attitude as well as her ability to think outside the box and so very inspiring. best of all, contagious. i think she has a great impact on the community and i look forward to seeing her as city administrator. thank you. >> next speaker. >> hello. >> go ahead. >> there's been so many years since i worked with her former mayor ed lee.

i encourage the board to vote her nomination. >> next speaker please. >> that completes the queue. >> chair peskin: thank you mr. clerk. thank you to all of the members of the public for your testimony, which really speaks to the geographic and cultural support for the mayor's nomination.

if you listening madam mayor, very good pick. to the one member of the public, mr. dradler who supported this confirmation subject to additional due diligence, let me just say that as the chair of the rules committee, i have done that due diligence. i have done it thoroughly. i have asked those questions assessor recorder chu. she answered them. i. independently verified that her answers are true and correct that no special privileges were granted to her in the case of the prop 8 temporary tax reduction that she was months a class of 14,708 properties, 3 similarly situated in the neighborhood in which she owns real property. this is a practice that was done

by many counties. as a matter of fact, there was no ability for ms. chu and her co-owner to say yes or no. it was merely a property tax bill that for a temporary period was at a lower rate. as to the individual who was a former member of the assessment appeals board, i will say, nothing more than that individual was not reappointmented to the assessments appeals board. i may have had something to do that. unrelate to this issue but relate to that individual's professionalism. with that, colleagues, do you have any more questions or comments about this most important appointment seeing both of you shaking your heads in the negative. i like to make a motion to send this with recommendation as a

committee report to be heard tomorrow, january 26, 2021 by the full board of supervisors. mr. clerk, on that motion, a roll call please. [roll call vote] the motion passes without objection. >> chair peskin: congratulations assessor recorder chu. may your replacement be half as good as you have been in the assessor recorder's office. we will see you tomorrow at the full board of supervisors as a committee report and presumably see you in your new role on february 1, 2021. mr. clerk, please read the next item. >> item 3. motion to approving the mayor's nomination of appointment for

newsha ajami for term ending august 1, 2024. >> chair peskin: thank you mr. clerk, colleagues, i doubt you will have another rules committee meeting with three of these caliber of important appointments ranging from the tjpa to the city administrator and public utilities commission. i interviewed newsha ajami. she is qualified. she's being nominated to the at-large seat. she will probably qualify for any number of seats. are there any initial questions or comments from members of the committee before i introduce ms?

seeing none, dr. ajami, the floor is yours for initial statement or presentation. then we'll open up to questions from committee members and then members of the public. the floor is yours. >> thank you so much. good afternoon chair peskin and vice chair mandelman and supervisor chan. i want to thank the committee for considering my nomination to the san francisco public utility. i want to thank mayor breed for nominating me to such an important role. i have dedicated myself to the steady development of environmental policy and solutions in my current role as the director of policy, i focus on analyzing and utilizing data to inform developments of equitable and sustainable water

solutions and infrastructure finance models. incorporating impacts of climate change and human behavior to build innovative solutions have has been at the heart of my carrier. while this is my first nomination to serve on an oversize body for the city and county of san francisco, i do have experience on boards at the state and federal level. i understand important rule that oversize body place when it comes to understanding projects and programs that has significant impact on our natural resources, and the personal finances of our residents and businesses. i take this responsibility very

seriously. >> chair peskin: not to interrupt you. for a value of my colleague on the bay conservation and development commission? >> yes, absolutely. i would like to highlight three values if i'm confirmed board of supervisors that i will bring to the role as commissioner. we have to thank nature as ally to address climate change impacts rather than and element by building more heavily engineered solutions. i spent the last two decades

thinking and working on these issues. i look forward to bringing my knowledge and learning to inform p.u.c. policy and process. also building resilient water supply is a top priority for many utilities including sf water and member of the regional water board. i have overseen number of projects how, where and what needs to happen and what needs to change and how they need to change policies and regulatory system. i hope to use much of that experience in my new role. also to build this more sustainable and equitable future while promoting more collaboration and governance and engagement. collaborative governance as we deal with financial well-being infrastructure investment strategies and rate setting

processes across enterprises have been a topic. i have worked on nationally, at the state level and regionally. i really look forward to working with you the full board of supervisors, mayor breed and the staff at sf p.u.c. as we further explore these issues and topics if confirmed. in closing, i'm really honored to be here today. i'm here today because i'm dedicated to using my education and expertise to help guide the sf p.u.c. i am grateful to be nominated. i look forward for the opportunity to serve the city as sfpuc commissioner. if confirmed by the board. i'm happy to the answer any questions that the committee members may have. >> chair peskin: thank you

dr. ajami. supervisor mandelman or chan, any questions or comments? >> supervisor chan: thank you chair peskin and dr. ajami, we love to learn just a bit more about your view on the management. it's a critical time in my opinion for the management of hedge hetchy. we've seen technology, demanding needs increasing. just love to have a brief statement from you on the record

about hedge hetchy at the moment >> as a resident of san francisco, i'm proud to be able to access -- it's a very important source of water for us as a city and also the area and the region to live in. we build a lot of infrastructure at a time that enable us to grow socially and economically and enabled us to be able to meet the needs of the population. obviously, moving forward, we'll see that there are other options available at the table that can actually do couple of things. help us to continue maintaining and operating the systems that we already have. these are essential systems that have been in place and critical

to our resilience. you will see less of those very large infrastructure solutions to be implemented by focusing on more smaller, regionally focused and environmentally friendly solutions that actually can compliment what we have. i hope than answers your question. >> supervisor chan: that does. that also also some way leads me to my second question. seemingly, in some way, is really the -- [indiscernible]

we are dependent on the water that we have for fire fighting at this moment. it will be great to the west side to have a pump station to be built out and supplement that demand in case that we have a significant need for fire fighting on the west side. i want you to elaborate on that -- your point of view about -- greater detail. we still have to learn in the coming months because they have yet to really have a --

[indiscernible] we want to get your expertise on this issue. >> sure. there are number of options obviously available. from some of the local solutions or local water supplies that we have on the western side, if something happens, obviously you need to have the right infrastructure in place to be able to access those sources if we have a major fire on the western side. i think we have a few of those sources available, potentially they can be tapped. i know there's some interest in accessing or using ocean water for this purpose. which i think is a little bit more complex and need to be evaluated more closely, especially because some of the requirements that exist to build

intake facilities. it's not just any facility that takes water from the ocean, it requires needs to meet these requirements to preserve our marine environment. it's a complex issue. >> chair peskin: i hate to interrupt. we're having some technical issues. we'll need a short recess to reconnect the bridge line. i believe we need a short recess. >> chair peskin: before, before we recess, dr. ajami that's up to my former colleague and our mutual acquaintance commissioner. with that, we will recess until -- is five minutes enough?

>> can you confirm how much time you need? i believe they said 10 minutes. >> chair peskin: okay. we will reconvene at 12:27. >> s >> chair peskin: we'll reconvene the rules committee, sorry for the technical difficulty. we'll return to the proceedings which i believe, ms. ajami was addressing. where were we? >> we were talking about the emergency water -- >> chair peskin: we were on the west side code benefit pipeline.

>> supervisor chan: pump station. >> chair peskin: that's right we were talking about a slant well and entrapment in jurisdiction over pulling salt water to intake to the water supply system. that's where we were. thank you for reminding me. >> do you want me to continue? >> chair peskin: please. >> as i was saying, building intake to take some water is a complex process and obviously requires to meet some of the new more recent regulations in order to prevent any major impacts on the environment. that's a much more complex process. obviously it's an option. i believe some of this,

especially lake merced, is one option that can be used as an emergency water source if needed. positive thing about something like lake merced, when we use ocean water, we will deal with some corrosion because of the saltiness of the sea water. which needs to be addressed if that wish to happen. i believe, i need to -- based on my knowledge and experience, dealing with some of the issues related to corrosion, what happens is after this water used, the whole system needs to be flushed to be able to get through as much salt as we can. it can be a very intensive process. it's important to think about different size of the issue, the pros and cons and what really --

the amount of water we need in a real serious emergency situation. what are the options we have at the table. i think it's important to evaluate them all and be mindful of which one of them is least invasive, most effective and can be done in a cost possible for us to undertake. >> supervisor chan: thank you so much. back to you chair peskin. i have completed my questions. thank you. >> chair peskin: supervisor mandelman, any questions for dr? >> supervisor mandelman: no. gratitude and delight we have someone who is qualified for this position as she is. >> i appreciate that.

>> chair peskin: vice chair mandelman, and i will associate myself with those comments. briefly, matter of transparency, speak to what dr. ajami and i spoke to when we visited one was the board of supervisors and mayors collective policy desire to reach energy independence in the city and county of san francisco as it relates to local electrical distribution and pacific gas and electric, which i believe dr. ajami, i don't want to put words in her mouth, shares that policy and desire. supervisor chan touched on briefly related to trying to figure out the right policy solution going forward on

tuolumne river. this department has been under the cloud of the corruption scandal. p.u.c. commission will be intimately involved in a selection of qualified, new general manager and finally, the notion of independence of commissioner who does what she thinks is right independent of pressure from individual members or the legislative or executive branches. we certainly should meet and confer. that was the subject matter of conversation that we had last week. with that,ly open it up to public comment. are are members of the public who like to comment on item

number 3? >> members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001. meeting i.d. is 146 592 7527 and press pound and pound again. please dial star 3 to line up to speak. we currently have 8 listeners and three parties lined up to speak. first caller. >> my name is francisco. i want to address my comments to the new commissioner if i can pronounce her last name, ajami. i think first and foremost, you

should ask the comptroller to give you an audit on community benefits. i know you are an educator but you serve the community, you want people to address the taxpayers money. i think you do a good job. once you started the audit, many things will fall in place. i, myself, am an environmentalist, i have been for 40 years. there's no climate change not very well understood by the san francisco public utilityings commission. nor are they in favor of understanding the native american and the tuolumne river

and we speak for the -- them. we should understand when i say that. we speak for the salmon. our heart has been to be in the right place to take ourselves and others to a better place. you will be hearing from me as you attend the meetings and as i try to attend the meetings. it's pretty difficult because of pandemic. advocates have to -- you have too many crooks, too many corrupt people. we are like a hawk watching them. thank you very much >> next speaker. >> thank you chair peskin and members of the committee. i'm barry nelson.

i represent salmon and fish industry. i like to offer our support for ms. ajami for this position. p.u.c. is in desperate need of leadership as the chair pointed out. there's a need for hiring a new general manager. we think that should be an outside candidate in light of general manager departure. on the issues as well, p.u.c. needs new leadership and guidance. the p.u.c. has opposed new science-based protections for the development of salmon. it is also behind many other agencies, frankly most other

large cities in california when it comes to investing in climate smart, alternative water supply. fortunately, i've known and worked with ms. ajami for years. she has tremendous experience and will be a real asset in the sfpuc. >> mr. nelson, i believe that dr. ajami used to be your alternate at bay conservation development commission. >> ivy street the alternate -- -- iwas alternate for regional d seat. >> chair peskin: sorry, it's hard to remember that out and remember. my apologies. >> not at all. next speaker please.

>> chair peskin: thank you mr. nelson. you can start by do your testimony. >> i wanted to be sure that everything is working. the phone line went down. david pilpel again. do not know ms. ajami. she's an excellent person water policy. i thought her presentation was impressive. water is one of the three enterprises at the p.u.c., it is complex and important to the city and the region. the p.u.c. is one of the agencies that i follow closely. i support this appointment. i hope that she will serve us well. i believe she will and complete the composition at the p.u.c. at a critical time. thanks. >> chair peskin: next speaker.

>> that completes the queue. >> chair peskin: public comment is closed. any additional comments from members of this committee? i see one head shaking no and i believe that concludes the proceedings. colleagues, if there is no no objection, elike to make a motion to send with recommendation and approval motion to the full board of supervisors for the appointment of dr. newsha ajami to the public utilities commission to the at-large seat. mr. clerk, did i state that correctly? >> clerk: that will be seat number three. >> chair peskin: that will be seat number three, formally occupied by tim paulson, roll

call please. [roll call vote] the motion passes without objection. >> chair peskin: dr. ajami, we will take this matter up next week at the full board of supervisors. congratulations for passing the second of three hurdles. we look forward to your service on the p.u.c. commission. it will be a challenge. we will be in touch. with that, mr. clerk, next item please. >> clerk: thank you. item number 4, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending february 1, twenties 2003 to the park regular creation and open space advisory committee. one seat one applicant. >> chair peskin: this is the district 2 seat. colleagues as i indicated,

around the appointment of an individual to the advisory committee, i'm striving in conjunction with the city attorney's office to change our practices around this. we are looking for different solutions. with that, i'm delighted that supervisor stefani has recommended ms. leung for this position. >> thank you very much supervisor peskin. thank you supervisors for this opportunity to speak with you today. let me start with the fact that i love our city parks. i'm in parks everyday with my dog. for me, like most san

franciscans, our parks are our backyard. for many years, i have served as a volunteer with friends of lafayette park. we have found community, pre-covid and in our monthly cleaning and greeting activities, in our seasonal get togethers, even movie nights. i'm a representative of how parks make life better here in our urban environment. i appreciate the san francisco is the fourth city in our nation where all resident have access to bring space within a 10 minute walk. during this covid pandemic, i see the creative ways our community is reimagining their live outdoors. more than ever, access to bring space in our open parks are where we can find our well-being, where we can be healthy and where we can feel connected. i'm very grateful to san francisco rec and parkings for

the many ways they are promoting health and safety protocols during the covid pandemic in our green spaces. my interest in it park recreation and open space advisory committee sten stems a desire to be service to our community. i'm excited to support supervisor stefani so that district 2 residents feel safe in our city spaces. personally, i bring a passion for access to nature, conservation and community partnership. i worked in the private sector of sustainability. i'm currently a member of the golden gate national park conservancy. i see opportunity for connections between our city

parks and the golden gate national regular creation areas federal parkland. i would love to connect our 220 city parks to the ggni27 federal parklands and historic sites. especially where the lands are adjacent. including the presidio and many which are located in district 2. my priority would be that we ensure that we offer accessible, welcoming and equitable open spaces for residents and visitors alike. thank you so much for consideration of my appointment. i'm very happy to answer any questions. >> chair peskin: thanks. any questions from committee members? seeing none. are there any members of the public who like to testify on this item and ms. lee -- -- i

think supervisor stefani and i both have federal and local lands that are adjacent to one another. i'm delight to hear that. are there any members of the public who like to testify on this item? >> yes, members of the public who wish to provide public comment on it item, call 415-655-0001. meets i.d., 144 592 7527 and present pound and pound again. please dial star 3 to line up to speak. >> we have no callers in the queue. >> chair peskin: okay, public

comment is closed. i like to send ms. leung to the full board on recommendation. roll call please. [roll call vote] motion passes without objection. >> chair peskin: next item please. >> clerk: item 5, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending april 27t2021 and six members terms ending april 27, 2022. >> chair peskin: we took action on one of the seats, seat number

4. before that time and during the interim, my office communicated with i believe every single remaining applicant. i want to thank my staff who is a former member of the sunshine ordinance task force for his work on that. i'm pleased to report that everybody who has applied is qualified to serve in various seats. i'm quite encouraged to see so many people interested in improving access to public records in san francisco. which all of three of us, pursuant to training understand. there is a backlog of complaints due to a number of reasons. covid certainly being one of them as well as the fact that

there has been some 70 plus complaints filed by one single individual. as well lack of staffing which we are hard pressed to afford that would help narrow issues of thee complaints. also lacking and exacerbating for the volunteering body. we had a very productivive conversation with the current chair. we discussed administrative changes that will help move things along including the possibility of consolidating complaints that present identical issues such as the two dozen complaints relate to prop g calendar, resolving complaints

of subcommittees the full task force and if this body is going to meet its goals that were approved by the voters, pursuant to chapter 67 of the administrative code, it needs to really take serious and effective action to assessor chu move through backlog and my staff and i will monitor that closely. will be available to provide guidance along the way. having said that, if there are any individuals who did not comment at the last meeting who are applicants for the seats. you are welcome to do so now and pursuant to our state and local laws, if any of you spoke at the

last meeting and have the need to speak again, you can do so now. in the interest of time, if you don't need to do so and you already spoken, you need not do so again. with that, do any of the applicants the floor is yours, mr. young. >> clerk: any -- applicants that wish to speak state your name at this time. >> david pilpel. good afternoon committee, david pilpel again. i won't previous all my previous comments from your meting on january 11th. i do not know who the anonymous requester is. i do support that person and

anyone else making anonymous public comments at meetings and anonymous public records request. i would like to draw the line at anonymous complaints. i think the public interest is best served when respondents are known their identities are public. that's how it works in court. that's that the same should apply to administrative hearings. i intentionally made provokive suggestions at the backlog. they may or may not be workable. they are other ways some of which chair peskin just described to reduce the backlog. i think it's important for complaints to be heard and resolved quickly and having too many complaints stuck in the queue helps no one. my comments about more or less important complaints relates to what remedy to apply to violations, addressing

department head while making a referral to another agency. i would not prejudge complaints. i have ruled for both complainants and respondents in my past service. i agree all the applicants appear to be qualified. i'm willing to be serve if the board appointments me. my caution is not to expect different results from the task force with the same dynamics going forward. i know that my long history with the city has pros and cons and i can take any comments or questions you might have. >> chair peskin: next speaker please. >> clerk: are there any other applicants for the sunshine ordinance task force who like to

speak at this time? there does not appear to any other speakers. there's been no response. >> chair peskin: are there any members of the public who like to speak to this item? >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item, should call 415-655-0001, meeting i.d., 146 592 7527. press pound and pound again. system prompt little indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the similar indicate you have been unmuted. any public comments at this time? >> mr. chair, we have no callers in the queue. >> chair peskin: public comment is closed. are there any comments from committee members.

if not, i like to make a motion. colleagues? seeing no comment. let me make -- sorry. supervisor mandelman. >> supervisor mandelman: i want to thank folks who reached out to my office who we met with. i do think that this is a task force a body that would benefit from gender and other types of diversity. i think we have excellence, women and people of color candidates. i was particularly impressed by ms. jones neighbors, not because she's a constituent of mine and ms. stein and ms. forsley.

i thought this is new additions seem great. >> chair peskin: thank you for those comments. i concur. thank you to all the applicants. >> supervisor chan: thank you chair peskin. i think i am -- i share the sentiment expressed by vice chair mandelman as well. it is great to see women candidates come before us for the sunshine task force. i definitely won't want to advocate for diversity but comfort to know that someone like the members that are already here, like bruce wolfe and matthew yankee and chris hyland have expressed their interest to continue their work. they have been doing for quite some time. i think it's a great balance to have those diversity and fresh

new perspective. meanwhile, we have the institutional knowledge and experience to keep the task force going. that's my approach and really glad variety of candidates to do this thankless work and keeping our city government transparent and accountable. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you supervisor chan. with that colleagues, if there's no objections, i like to make the following motion. while seat 3 did not have any applicants, kevin frazier, we've determined he is qualified to fill seat number three. that is certainly within our powers and purview to do as a member of the media or

electronic media, interested in improving access to public record. i like to move kevin frazier fill seat 3. that was matthew yankee fill seat 7, chris hyland fill seat 8, neighbors seat nine and kai forsley seat 10 and i like to make a motion in that regard. are there any comments on said motion. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you chair peskin. i'm comfortable for voting for that motion. do we know why mr. frazier has not appeared?

>> chair peskin: we do. mr. frazier has a job wherein, last week he was available until 10:30. same thing as today. which is precisely why we spoke to him. he has to make a living and that is precisely the reason. we have spoken to him and wish that he could attend. he wishes he could attend and only available 10:30 on mondays. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. >> chair peskin: supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: kevin frazier has been very active holding our elected officials accountable. looking forward to seeing him. thank you. >> chair peskin: by the way, i've been corrected that today he was actually available until noon and we have exceeded that

as well. with that, mr. clerk, i have made a motion. on that motion a roll call please. [roll call vote] moace passes without objection. >> chair peskin: that concludes the business before this committee. we are adjourned.

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>> the meeting will come to order. welcome to the january 25, 2021 regular meeting of the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i am supervisor melgar, chair of the committee joined by the vice chair supervisor presa canario and supervisor peskin. the committee clerk is erica major. and i would like to acknowledge javier at