. >> president walton: good morning and welcome to the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, march 22nd. our clerk is mr. victor young. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor rafael mandelman. >> clerk: the board of supervisors slaltive and committee room are closed the. community members will attend

the meeting as if they were present. public comment will be available on each item of the agenda. comments or opportunity to speak during public commentary are available via phone by dialling (415) 655-0001 the i.d. number is 1878969131. then press pound and pound again. when your item of interest comes up, dial starly to be added to the speaker line. speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. alternatively, you may submit public comment to

victor.young@sf.gov.org. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mr. young. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. a new rule 2.21.1. allowing for adoption and subject to approval by the full board. and a new rule 2.21.2 clarifying the process falsify direct appointments to subordinate bodies by district supervisors that are not subject to approval by the full board. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mr. young. colleagues in the 13 years i have been a member of the board of supervisors i have never had the pleasure of chairing the

rules committee before and i have been able to undertake a number of reforms and streamline the process and this is the first of those reforms. there will be others forthcoming and this is really very simple. as you know, there are a number of different ordinances relative to appointments to various policy bodies wherein a district supervisor has the ability to appoint but that appointment is subject to the approval by the full board of supervisors. those traditionally have come before the rules committee but they are pro forma. so the new board rule 2.21.1 would provide that for district supervisor appointments pursuant to those ordinances, they would -- that are subject

to approval by the full board that these appointments would bypass the rules committee and be adopted by the full board of supervisors without reference to committee agenda calendar and that would still allow for public comment and any supervisor would still be able to make a motion to send that to committee for further consideration or additional public comment. appointments in this category by example include the park recreation and open space advisory committee that we refer to as prosac. each of which are nominated by an individual supervisor and then approved by the full board. currently, those go through the committee process and are routine, but this would allow them to go straight to the full board provided that a complete application has been submitted and a form 700s are required

that those too have submitted and that the appointing supervisor has made the representation via a letter that they have met with the applicant and believe the applicant to be qualified per whatever ordinance they're being appointed to and fit to serve. new rule 2.21.2 advises direct supervisor appointments which are not currently subject to approval by the full board and after conferring with clerk calvio, we're improving this new rule primarily to distinguish this category of appointments from those in the proceeding rule. but nothing about the process would change. this just clarifies that and these direct appointments, examples of that are behavioral health commission, the advisory board, the mteac and are not

subject to approval by the full board. the words in 2.21.2 just clarified that. finally, colleagues and prior to public comment and thank you deputy city attorney pierson, i'd like to make a little amendment which really tracks with charter section 4.01 subsectionb as for the appointments subject to approval by the full board. those appointments would still be referred to by the committee. and upon consultation with ms. pearson you are required to make a small amendment. which these would have an aid waiver which would also be referred to by committee. so page 2, i'd like to insert

the words "and/or aids" in two locations directly following the word "residency" so in each case residencies and/or wage waivers would still come before this committee. i'm happy to take answers and public comment and otherwise look forward to moving this modest process improvement to the full board. are there any questions or comments from committee members? seeing none. mr. clerk, why don't we bring -- i'm sorry. supervisor mandelman. >> i just want to thank you, mr. chair, for bringing this on and i thank mr. hener in your office for his work on this. as a member of this committee, i'm grateful for this report.

>> chairman: thank you, vice chair mandelman. and part of the reason that it's going to the adoption without committee reference dall canada is not only so the public can know but so that the clerk can track these appointments in the report which will be tomorrow. i'll be introducing at the full board of supervisors a hearing in this committee with regard to how we use the state maddie act. and with that, can we please open this up to public comment. >> clerk: yes. members of the public that wish to comment on this item call (415) 655-0001 the meeting i.d. is 1878969131 press pound and then pound again. press star 3 to be entered to

speak. please wait until the system tells you you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. we have two in line to speak p. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> can you hear me now? >> chairman: we can hear you now. mr. pillappeal, please. >> i support this change as chair peskin indicated. more can be done to encourage people to apply for the annual madi act, but this modest change allows person appointments to avoid committee hearings thanks to supervisor peskin for their work on this. but as was indicated there may be others that i don't track to

which it applies and since the amendment i don't think has been available to the public yet, i'm just wondering if you can make clear if the age waiver that was discussed would apply on page three as well to those appointments subject to the second rule. >> chairman: and, i do not wish to engage valuetive of the brown act in a back and forth discussion and, number one, the 199-page madi act report is available online and that certainly is a clue as to which bodies these rules would apply to as to the exact places that and/or age would be inserted

page number two, line fourteen. so appointments requiring a residency and/or age waiver shall not be eligible to appear for the adoption without committee reference agenda. next at line 15 upon receipt of a nomination that requires a residency insert and/or age waiver. and then again at the last page, page three, line three, if needed, appointing district supervisor shall also include the waiver of the residency insert and/or age requirement in their letter or format testation that is submitted with the appointment package. next speaker, please. >> thank you, mr. chair. thank you, mr. chair. my name is win shapilliar. i oppose this rule. the proposed rule 2.21.2 -- i'm

sorry. the proposed rule 2.21.1 would take away the public's right to testify as to approval of the appointment being made. and would thus violate the brown act section 2549.3a and the sunshine ordinance as well as contract the whereas clause which maintains opportunities for public input. for this reason, i recommend rejection at the proposed rule. or if the problem may be split, rejection of the rule 2,.21.1. or the proposed rule 2.21.2. >> chairman: thank you. are any other members of the public here for public comment on item number 1? >> clerk: i believe that was the last caller. waiting confirmation.

>> correct. no more callers in queue. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed and with regard of the comments of the last speaker the adoption without committee on reference calendar on the board of supervisors agenda is indeed subject to public comment. to 100% of the appointments subject to 2.21.1 will be subject to public comment at the full board of supervisors on the adoption without committee reference calendar and it is not as i've been advised by counsel valuetive of the brown act. with that, colleagues, i would like to make a motion to amend with the aforementioned amendments relative to age. with that, mr. clerk, a roll

call please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: may we now -- i would now like to make a motion to send the item as amended to the full board with recommendation as a committee report. a motion on that please. >> clerk: in the motion recommended as a committee report. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: next item, please. >> clerk: next on the agenda is item number two. ordinance amending the administrative code and campaign and governmental and

to establish the vision of responsibility in the office between the executive director and the chief medical examiner. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. colleagues if you will indulge me for a couple of minutes. i want to thank you for considering this legislation and by way of background, the office of the chief medical examiner plays a crucial role in providing unbiased timely and scientific forensic medical services to the general public and the city and county. unfortunately, the office as we all know has long been plagued with a series of -- well, let's call it like it is, scandals, miss management, lack of management of one flavor or another over quite a number of years, probably as long as i've been here. which, ultimately, has been laid at the feet of a number of

industry administerers to address given that this is one of the governmental functions of the city administrator. in march of 2014, the chief medical examiner, dr. heart stepped down amid a huge backlog of cases over half of which were over a half a year in duration which not only impacted families waiting for closure and death certificates for their loved ones, but also delayed the workings of our criminal justice system that relies on the medical examiner's office. ms. heart's successor dr. hunter came here in the year 2015 and had a limited duration of only about four years and in june 2019 left and was recruited to lead the same office in san joaquin county,

california. and, since then, there have been a number of problems. i think we all read the sad story about a medical examiner, or preng analyst who got arrested in the state of utah with stolen evidence that led to a number of high profile media stories as well as a large number of criminal justice cases being questioned and kicked out. at that time, i had several meetings with then city administrator kelly to discuss possible reforms and restructuring of this office. and, frankly, she admitted we already knew in part that i've included as part of the firm record of this proceeding today

that it is really quite difficult to attract a chief medical examiner not only to this office but offices around the country. it is a -- there are not a lot of doctors in this business. so at any rate, in september of 2020, i asked the budget of legislative analyst to conduct an analysis of comparative practices of medical examiners, core functions, general oversight, hiring and firing criteria, and funding. i held a hearing on that. and, i think ultimately, the policy direction that i'm recommending today and discussed with then city administrator kelley have now discussed with city administrator choo that there

needs to be a clear role that's tasked with performance measures and the day-to-day operation and that really serves in a more traditional department head role rather than the doctor role. so, to that end, the legislation that i've introduced that is before you which, in essence, creates a department head who is not a doctor, obviously pursuant to state law, the chief medical examiner will still be the chief medical examiner and has to be a doctor, but is not going to be under this experiment, the department head. that is the sum and substance of the legislation that is before you. i am happy, colleagues, to attempt to answer any questions. and, if there are none, i'm happy to go to public comment. and i want to thank my chief of

staff for her years of work on this issue. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, supervisor peskin. i do agree it is a complicated issue. in my limited capacity working at the district attorney's office between the year of 2007 or 2008 until 2010, early 2011, the medical examiner's office faced a lot of challenges and i think will continue on as you mentioned. i do think that it is good to have someone in a role that functions more as an administrative role helping the office to integrate both integrate with the rest of the

city government, but also have some type of accountability and, you know, transparency between the role as medical examiner which a lot of information is confidential but also kind of parts out some of the administrative tasks to allow transparency but efficiency to the process. i look forward to seeing how this is going to play out. i think that it would be interesting to see specifically how with this structure what kind of plan that we will have to improve the efficiency for the office. but i'm happy to support it today so that we can see how this is going to show us at some point. i mean, in the future would

love to circle back to learn more about, you know, the performance and evaluation of this new structure for the medical examiner's office. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. and let me employ the first to say what i touched on earlier. this is, indeed an experiment. so if it works, god bless us. if it needs tweaking or rescission, we can deal with that in due course, but i think it's a step in the right direction. and, we will continue to monitor this as the rules committee and board of supervisors and i know city administrator choo and her staff has been looking forward to this. with that, seeing no other names on the roster. mr. clerk, why don't we open this up to public comment.

>> clerk: yes. members of the public which to provide public comment on this item should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1878969131 then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please press star 3 to line up to speak. the system will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. we have nine listeners and one caller at this time. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> can you hear me now? >> we can hear you mr. pillpell. >> it is david pillpell again. so i was going to ask for a little bit of an explanation of who is the department head and why the chair split. as i understand it, it sounds like the administrator because there's been a position for a long time in that office of an office administrator. it sounds like that position or

a new position is created that gets upgraded to an executive director and department head much like the health director. meanwhile, the chief medical examiner becomes more like the health officer at the health department. and so, it's really more of a split between the department head and administrative functions and the chief medical officer -- chief medical examiner and medical/forensic functions. so i think that makes sense. i support this change as explained by chair peskin and if needed a future change so be it and thanks again to chair peskin and sunny angelo for their work on this. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of

the public who would like to comment on this item? >> clerk: that completes the queue. >> chairman: thank you. so, colleagues, if there is no objection, i would like to make a motion to send this item to the recommendation with the full board of supervisors. on that, a roll call please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: thank you. can you please read the next item. >> clerk: next on the agenda is item number 3. motion approving the mayor's nomination of appointment of carol isen as the human resources director of the city and county of san francisco pursuant to charter section 10.103. >> chairman: thank you, clerk young. colleagues, this is one of the

very rare provisions in the charter where the board of supervisors has to concur with the mayor's nomination of a department head. the other -- the only other one i can think of is one that we dealt with quite recently which is the city administrator and here today before us is the nomination for new director of human resources in the form of one carol isen who i've known for the better part of 20 years. originally as a union representative at the international federation of professional technical engineers local 21. most of our staff, actually, come from that and later on as a senior ranking official in the department of human resources. with that, i would like to

invite ms. isen to make an opening statement and then i'll turn it over to committee members and then we'll open it up for public comment. ms. isen, if you are there, the floor it yours. >> thank you, chair peskin. members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to speak with you today. i am honored to serve the city and its officials and employees as human resources director. the nomination and i hope support and confirmation from this board of supervisors to service the city's human resources director is the culmination of a long career in public service. as a union representative and as a public servant. i am a career long advocate for public service and for effective and equitable government operations and services.

i would like to describe the qualities and strengths i believe that i bring to this position and my thoughts and plans if the board confirms my appointment. first, i commit to this board and to all employees in the city that i will set the tone from the top. i am ethical, respectful, i am direct, and i am compassionate. i bring deep knowledge to the merit system and the relationship in which these two things are intertwined. i have extensive experience and respect for the civil service union. i believe that fair, nonbias, nonpolitical ethical civil service employment is essential to the delivery of high quality public services. the city's employees are its greatest asset as has been so clearly demonstrated over the past year during the local

emergency which has been brought on by the covid-19 pandemic. i will always be their champion. i will honor their great work and i will take steps for compassionate but firm course direction when needed. as you know, i would be the first openly lgbtq employee which a key junction of my career, i would not have felt comfortable and safe to state this in such a public manner. as a worker advocate, i bring a deep and abiding commitment to the rights of all workers to provide free of psychological harm in the work place. bullied, harassed, suppressed, not appreciated or encouraged or unfairly disciplined or intollerable. all of us have the right to

earn a living and should do so with respect and discipline. our efforts are making this point forcefully. i am committed to doing everything in my power as human resources director to listen and to address head-on the demand for racial justice and equity in the workplaces. we owe this to our employees. i commit to being a full partner and champion as the human rights commission, the office of racial equity, the office of transgender initiatives and all of our city agencies including the department of human resources pursue the critical task of advancing racial and social justice in the san francisco city employment. i believe that organized labor should and must be our active partners in this work. the rights of all workers to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect is at the core of the labor movement's mission

which are the principles i have advanced throughout my career as union representative and as a city employee. i'd like to pause here for a minute just to acknowledge the recent violence against our asian american and pacific islander community. our colleagues in the aapi world are so woven into the fabric of our work. at d.h.r. we will make sure thatsen xenophobia has no place in our workplace. i urge everybody who feels the need for those services to take advantage of them. if confirmed, i will pursue the following objectives. first, to protect the integrity and fairness in civil service. part of the oath for this

position which is the only city employee to take this oath is the following: i am opposed to the public service as a reward for political activity and will execute the office of human research and director with the spirit of this declaration. i will uphold this oath to the fullest of my capacity. but this is a significant challenge. d.h.r. processes on average 125,000 applications for employment every year and over 11,000 appointments each year. we have multiple points of entry through the perm nans that will service to various appointment types permitted by charter, but exempted from the civil service system. at present, d.h.r. conducts audits only in response to allegations or complaints. i would seek to establish an auditing function within dhr which would conduct routine and random audits and coordinate

its activity with the whistle blower function, the public integrity unit of the civil service office. i think it's important to get the word out. the d. h.r. is stepping up its oversight and this is supported by the executive and legislative branches of the city. and, as you know, with the support of the mayor, i have launched an independent review of our equal employment opportunities and employment practices. we will work with all interested parties including this board once the report is issued. in addition, d.h.r. is recently initiated a collaborative effort with pacific bridge with u.s. response to evaluate and amended or business work processes. i would like to make sure the departments are at the forefront of addressing this conduct promptly and effectively.

in a well publicized incident last year, a now former employee of our e.e.o. division hid her actions and deceived supervisors and co-workers in our division. we're working with civic bridge with identified steps to systems are in place to prevent misconduct in the future. second, i will promote and inforce healthy work places. this includes everything from respect and dignity at work to robust health and safety programs. i intend to prom l gate with increase and swift consequences for misconduct and special focus on misconduct and its discriminatory, defamatory or [inaudible] .

to my worker's compensation division which has led the way to fair and processing of claims, we will takes step the to fulfill our full charter responsibility to expand in health and safety coordination with our city departments. as we have taken a leadership role throughout the local emergency in many practice areas, we have launched a citywide health and safety coordinating committee and brought in efforts to support this work and i would like to very much build this up and keep it going. i will work to promote career employment for all our employees, not just some and encourage training, education and skills development. we will strengthen our partnerships with our city agencies in community and educational partners to advance job opportunities and pathways to them. and, i am committed to pursuing these activities through a highly focused equity lens.

we will do this through the support of our newly created office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. through the diversity, equity, and inclusion office, we will immediately begin to establish city wide and department levels strategic goals for this work and examine and promote practices that support an inclusive and belonging environment in which all of our employees are treated fairly. next, i will modernize and improve merit based hiring and promotions. our civil service system is rule and process bound as you know. i am aware of the range of complaints not new that the time and complexity involved in hiring is excessive and overly burdensome and further complaints that it adversely

affects citizens of color. we have initiated a review of several aspects of city employments to understand how they are working for our employees and for our city agencies and where they're falling short including testing protocols, minimum qualifications, the use of temporary and permanent exempt appointments. outreach and recruiting and, finally, deidentification of applicants in the selection process. and, we will continue that work and look forward to reporting our work to the board of supervisors. we are looking forward to completing our first major milestone of our hiring modernization program with our tracking system. i hope this is only the first of major investments in system supporting personnel activities. a lot is expected of d.h.r..

however, the department is badly in need of investment resources. with that, i would like to acknowledge the professionalism and dedication of the employees who comprise the department of human resources. i've heard from many corners the perception that d.h.r. has broken. not without major challenges as i've stated here, i think d.h.r. is not at all broken. with the same energy that we've poured into the covid response, we will focus on critical evaluations, process reforms and course correction as needed of our core work. i intend to reform and revitalize d.h.r. and focus on the priorities i have outlined today. thank you, chair peskin and members of the rules committee for considering my nomination. i ask that you recommend me to the full board of supervisors as the city and county of san

francisco human resources director. >> chairman: thank you for your courage and seeking this seat and having been nominated by the mayor. are there any questions or comments from members of the rules committee? seeing none at this time. why don't we -- supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. and, yes, i agree and i thank ms. isen for your submission to be nominated to, you know, and to be going through this process to really manage our human resource department in this challenging time. you know, i think for the last 15 years, i have worked in various city departments and -- and both at will and/or as a

temporary position or even as a civil servant. i do agree and i really appreciate you specifically address that your intent to reform, you know, e.e.o. because, and to really hold our department heads and executives accountable for misconduct because we have seen, you know, in the last year in 2020, i want to say this on the record, be it public corruption be it sexual harassment and discrimination for either racism or for race, you know, age, all of that, when that really comes to light or any of those to come to light, we know it's actually have gone through a pattern and quite some time that built up to those cases

for lawsuits. and, as someone that's been in the city departments for the last 15 years, i really look forward to have a mechanism that's put in place in every point of our city departments to make sure that these behaviors don't go unchecked on all levels, but most definitely our city department heads and executives because at times or a lot of times we're cultured to have a diverse, safe, healthy work culture really comes from leadership from the top, from city department heads and their executives. and, so i really look forward to seeing your leadership, you know speak for the workers, making sure that they are respected and treated right for the work that they do and that, you know, not let any of this misconduct go unchecked for far

too long. so i thank you for all your comments today, you know, directly addressing racial equity and misconduct. it's really what i need to hear and it's really what i want to see for someone, you know, managing our human resources. because i also know it's very challenging. you as human resources stand alone in trying to oversee all these city departments where they -- all these city department heads and executives as appointing officers have really -- they leverage on hiring and recruiting and disciplining workers and it's going to take a lot of effort to hold them accountable and have transparency through that process or with that process. so i thank you and i look forward to supporting you today. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. seeing no other names on the roster. mr. clerk, why don't we open this up to public comment.

>> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide comment on this item should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1878969131 then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please press star 3 to line up to speak. a system will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates. we currently have seven listeners and four callers in line to speak on this item. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> yes. my name is miguel galarza with engineering. i've known carol for about 20 years. i've worked with her with work force development when she was with p.u.c. and recently worked

with her extensively with the san francisco p.o. lane negotiations that took numerous months to complete and was instrumental in bringing it home and considering all the stakeholders involved. my relationship with her has always proven to be respectful and courteous. i look forward to see all the constituents involved and has always been on top of her game. as i am not a city employee nor have a stake in the game. i just simply want to say that, as an employer, having someone on my team that would have the experience and level headedness that she would bring to the city would be an outstanding asset to the city and her appointment would bring credit to departments and bring it full circle. so i wholeheartededly approve her appointment and look forward to seeing her in that

decision now and for a long time. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> can you hear me now? >> chairman: mr. pillpell, please proceed. >> thank you. my last comment today i believe. i believe the controllers subject to approval by the board of supervisors. on this point, i strongly support carol ise n's nomination as human resources director. she is an outstanding person, caring and knowledgeable about city personnel, policy, and process as a former labor representative for local 21. city employee, supervisor employee relations director and manager. she will not be the first woman as the city's h.r. director and hopefully not the last, but an

excellent one perhaps and hopefully much like andrea gordine many years ago. she has my full support and i think she will do a fine job. thank you very much. >> chairman: next speaker, please. >> good morning san francisco board of supervisors rules committee. my name is sal cruz and i'm a native san franciscan and long time resident of bernal heights district 9. i'm calling for carol isen's nomination. i am a labor union president at b.a.r.t. and have worked with carol for years and facilitating partnerships between labor and management. carol shares the values that my neighbors and i in bernal heights uphold. i support carol isen's nominations of appointment

human resources director for the city and county of san francisco. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. can you hear me? >> chairman: yes, we can. >> okay. good morning chair peskin and the other members of the rules committee. i'm here to urge you to support carol's appointment to the department of human resources director. i currently work at the san francisco zoo as executive vice president of human resources. prior to this, i was with the city and served as g.s.a. and labor relations manager before promoting to human resources director. i also work for p.n.c. and chinese affirmative action. i first met carol back in 1994. we were on staff for 10 to 14 years before carol decided to take a position in leadership.

i got to know her very well as a colleague and i consider her as a life long friend. i'm happy to share a secret with you and that is her character, her core values and her strong ethics have not waivered over the years. she's a compassionate person and furthers the lead in inclusion, equity, and access, diversity and a consensus builder sometimes to a fault. carol's task mainly to diversify -- >> chairman: thank you. mr. young, i concur with all of your comments and we're sorry to cut you off. i share your opinions and experience with ms. isen. mr. clerk, are there any other members of the public for this item three? >> clerk: i believe there may be one mr. speaker. >> chairman: next speaker,

please. >> good morning. my name is dante king and i represent a group called the black employees alliance. and we had maybe over between 50 and 70 of our members contact each of you to not support this confirmation. there are many employees who believe that director isen will carry on some of the woes that the human resources will continue. so i'm not speaking on behalf of myself but on behalf of a group that consists of over 400 members. so please take that under strong advisement and consideration. >> chairman: thank you, mr. king. are there any other members of the public for public comment? >> clerk: yes. we have additional people get in line. i believe we have three additional callers. >> chairman: next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is elia

hernandez and i'm with [inaudible] san francisco. and we would like to have [inaudible] to come back. >> chairman: i'm sorry. that's item number 4. the next item. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> chairman: yeah. so if you get back in line, we will hear you for item number 4. >> clerk: can we have the next caller, please. >> good morning, mr. chair and members of the committee. rudy gonzalez with the construction trades. in that capacity, we have several thousand frontline public workers at the city and county. they deserve fair and transparent leadership with the head of this agency and we believe carol isen's appointment will bring just that. she not only has the experience necessary for this important role, but for those of us who've had to deal with her

directly, sometimes in difficult circumstances and in opposite ends of an argument. she also brings the credibility that's necessary to be effective in this role. not only the management side of the city as an institution, but also the workers and importantly the community. so we appreciate her appointment is timely and not lost on us as an lgbtq leader. this also stands as an important statement with this appointment of inclusion and diversity which she represents, embodies and promotes with her own teams. so the building trades are in strong support of moving this forward and supporting carol isen. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker >> kim cavaloni, san francisco labor department. i want to say we support carol isen, she and her no-nonsense

to [inaudible] -- perpetuated through human resources over last decade and she's willing to tackle it as best she can. [inaudible] -- with her and we know that she's going to make some changes that are deeply needed within the department and we look forward to that. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hi, this is jessica brown with the black employee alliance. i'm here on behalf of the b.e.a. to represent us not supporting carol isen's appointment as dante king mentioned earlier, we do not believe that carol isen will be able to impact the change that is necessary for black employees particularly black

and latinx employees. unfortunately, we feel she will maintain the same status quo that has led to higher disciplinary actions of black and brown employees, salary gaps, and unfair rules for the civil service examine. while this is not an attack on carol isen on a personal note, at the same time, our h.r. needs reform. >>. we need someone to come in with the social justice to amongst black and brown employees across the city and we need somebody to adhere to the mayor's racial ordinance in order to bring inclusion and true diversity in social justice. so the b.e.a. does not support carol isen and we ask the city to reconsider appointing her. >> clerk: i believe that

completes our queue of callers. >> chairman: okay. with that, public comment is now closed and i will turn it back over to the committee. any comments from committee members? seeing no names on the roster. let me, first, for my own personal experience say that what we've heard from many of the public commenters and what we heard in ms. isen herself is just right. she has experience within the department of human resources, within other city positions, within labor on the other side and most importantly as i think

we all experience in her opening statement, she is humble, she is real, she is compassionate and i, for one absolutely concur with the mayor's appointment and am ready to hear a motion from a member of this committee and would suggest that that motion include that this be sent as a committee report. >> supervisor: so moved. >> chairman: mr. clerk, on that motion, a roll call please. >> clerk: yes. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion is adopted without objection to recommend the matter as a

committee report. >> chairman: ms. isen, we will see you tomorrow afternoon. mr. clerk, could you please call the next item. >> clerk: yes. next on the agenda is the hearing to consider appointing one member, term ending may 1,two thousand twenty-two and two members terms ending may 1,2023 to the office of early care and education citizens' advisory committee. >> chairman: thank you. colleagues, as part of the mission i'm on as chairman of the rules committee is to address the backlog of appointments and reappointments and vacancies that are under the jurisdiction of the board of supervisors, to streamline that process as you saw in item number one earlier. you will recall last week that the board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution

encouraging the speeding up of appointments to this body, the office of early care and education c.a.c. which was established back in 2014 to make recommendations to the office of early care and education regarding their mission of providing those services for children ages zero to five in san francisco as well as to other city departments involved in early education matters. when that resolution introduced by supervisor melgar came up at the full boards, i noted i would schedule it at our next possible meeting, which is today. some of those seats seemed ready to go and another seat, seat 7 seemed less ready to go and i will schedule that at the

next meeting. since that time, i want to point out a few sticky wickets for this committee to think about that i have discussed with counsel ms. pierson who is available to speak on them a little bit more. interestingly gnu and if you look at the maddie accurate report or that agenda for this hearing or the underlying documents, you will see that the seat 6 position actually expired in 2019 and was not heard by the previous rules committee for whatever reasons. albeit, ms. sullivan, the current occupant of that seat reapplied timely but it was never heard. the reason i bring this up is because the enabling legislation passed from seven

years ago said that there was a two-term limit for any individuals serving on this body and each term of two years. the interesting thing here is ms. sullivan has now served for almost four years, but two of those years were in the holdover capacity wherein she was not reappointed. counsel advises that that may not or probably does not trigger the four year, two-term limit, but i wanted to be very transparent, colleagues, with that. there's only one applicant for seat 9 which applicant would require residency waiver. there were five applicants for seat number eight. one of those individuals jessica campos has withdrawn. so there are now four applicants for that seat.

three of them would require a residency waiver and we did discuss at our last meeting section 4.101 subsection b of the charter which certainly encourages that where there's a qualified applicant, we seek a resident of the city and county of san francisco. so those are the thorny issues before us. i also want to point out and we can hear from staff to this body and to the department that there are an additional five seats that are mayoral seats. so the original enabling legislation created a nine-seat body. four of which are appointed by the board, five of which are appointed by the mayor. i have not had an opportunity to discuss with the mayor whether there can be some balancing and whether the mayor

may be interested in accommodating some of the remarkably qualified individuals that are before us today. we have a number of options. we can consider these today. we can move -- we can continue this item in whole or in part to the next meeting of the rules committee where it will be also considering seat number 7. so i just wanted to throw that all out to you, colleagues. are there any questions or comments from members of the committee? if not, i suggest that we go in order with the applicants as listed on the agenda. so why don't we start with ms. sullivan. ms. sullivan, if you would like to make a statement, i have read all of the applications and i'm sure my colleagues have as well for the 14 or however many individuals that are left

that are before us. ms. sullivan, the floor is yours. >> thank you very much. >> chairman: i'm sorry. seven applicants for three seats >> thank you, very much, supervisor peskin. i want to thank all of you for moving forward on seating the o.e.c.e.c. and it has been kind of lonely in that room with all the seats being filled so i'm so grateful you're moving forward with this. and, i wasn't aware there was a problem with my seat until just now. so, if there's a problem that i need to find someone that's also in family child care to serve if i can't, let me know. >> chairman: thank you, ms. sullivan. and it may or may not be a

problem. we can hear a little bit more from the city attorney. i don't want to put words in the city attorney's mouth, it's kind of a line call. does that conclude your initial remarks? >> yes. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. seeing no questions for ms. sullivan. why don't we move on to seat 8, ms. fromer. >> good morning. can you hear me? >> chairman: yes, we can. >> good morning chair peskin and rules committee. happy wonderful spring day in san francisco. my name is gina fromer and i'm at childrens counsel of san francisco. we provide resources for child care providers. as a sixth generation black san franciscan born and raised in

bayview point with deep roots and ties to my community, through my work and experience i am uniquely qualified for the c.a.c. seat 8 position. san francisco's local planning counsel for child care and the public policy chair for alternative payment public program associations. public policy committee where we advocate for additional resources for child care, and i also stayed on the southeast community commission as a member working to improve social and economic outcomes for citizens of our community. very connected to our city. i'm running for c.a.c. because there is more work that needs to be done. and, as an individual deeply involved in my community, i won't have time -- you know, i won't take too much time playing catch-up if appointed. i will be immediately be able to meet the needs of our community and get to work. right now, our city of san francisco is in dyer need of

two representations. every day, we have more families become ineligible with less child care spots available in the city. if you remember, prop c ruling is, working with the community in the office of early education to see how spending happens from those dollars. and, if appointed, i will do everything in my power to expand c.a.c. involvement as well as the impact across this great city. one of the things i wanted to mention and i know there's a rule around out of residency, but i want the body to know that in 2000, i was gentrified out of san francisco with my three sons but since then, and for 40 years i've been committed -- i've committed my life work to this city and children and families across

ymca work. community on top of the hill trying to get some work done. he wanted to get some work done in his community and now children's counsel of san francisco. i am a life-long san franciscan. i just live outside of our city and i really believe that when you spend twelve hours in the city you really do live there, you sleep somewhere else. but i really do appreciate your consideration. i thank you for this work. overall, the city needs legs and true support to work across the child care needs of our community. and, i do want to say one thing about the diversity of this group which is really important. we talk about true representation. i believe we need true representation across the c.a.c. group. thank you so much supervisor chan, and supervisor mandelman and supervisor peskin for the work in our city. >> chairman: thank you for invoking the name of my 1980s

and i do

thorny a year ago, but i do believe that more than ever early childhood education does need proper representation and also support as we have been up ended through this covid-19 crisis, and we are feeling it on all levels and so i have been very thoughtful and watching how i can contribute

and it was ms. fromer's predecessor who recommended a few years ago that this is where i would start to dip my toe in and use my experience with g.s.a. and the federal side of the work that i've done to contribute to san francisco as a whole. so i just want to thank everyone for considering my application at this time. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. seeing no questions from committee members. the next applicant jessica campos has withdrawn. so why don't we go to jennifer curran. >> good morning. thank you chair peskin and members of the rules committee to allow me to speak today. citizens advisory committee seat 8. my name is jennifer curran and i am the executive director a family private foundation in the city. for over 30 years, the peter hoss fund has worked in partnership with the city to

strengthen the quality of education in the city. particularly those living in underserved communities. i have enthusiastically dedicated my career to addressing inequities and challenges that young children and families living in poverty face. for the past 16 years, i have worked in a variety of capacities in the city that further this mission including 13 years spent in direct service to san francisco's young children and families through my work with jump start a national literacy organization. in my current role, i direct early education grant making which reaches all corners of the early education field in the city including early education work force leadership development and early leadership in child development. funding key initiatives in innovative strategies.

i feel that i would bring a unique perspective to the citizens' advisory committee strengthening the city's commitment to public private partnerships. i am an alumni of san francisco state university and mills college and a proud mother of two young daughters who were actually born in the city and a former resident of san francisco for 18 years. i have been a regular attendee of the citizens' advisory committee for the last five years. thank you so much for your consideration today. >> chairman: thank you for appearing before us and for your application. with that, why don't we move on to june lin-arlow. >> okay. hi everyone. good morning. my name is june lin-arlow and i am an american woman living in district 5 of san francisco. i am a child and family therapist and early childhood

mental health consultant working in the bayview. children in san francisco have struggled over the past year through collective trauma but also displacement and racism. as a therapist, i work closely with children and families. very young children have absorbed the anxiety of their care givers and have experienced an unprecedented level of isolation during the pandemic. as a mental health consultant, i work in three preschools in san francisco and a domestic violence shelter and in my role, i work with staff to strengthen their capacity to support the social emotional, behavioral, and relational health of children ages zero through five. by working in person and in my experience, there's been high staff turnover this year at all schools and staff are stretched

incredibly thin because early education and child care system absorbs the stressors that children and families experience at home, everything is especially heightened at this time. almost all of the children who get referred to me in mental health consultation are black boys and i spend a lot of time working with staff and administration on being trauma-informed, understanding the meaning behind behavior, having a strength-based approach and addressing racial bias when working with young children of color. when staff feel supported in their work, i've also seen these child care and education sites provide a place of stability and nurture during this difficult time. i'm very concerned about the long-term mental health and social development impacts for children over the last year which will be a priority for me if i were appointed to the seat. i would also make it a priority to advocate for working and ways condition that allow for people who do the incredibly

important work of caring and educating our children to be able to work and live in san francisco which has gotten increasingly unaffordable over time. and, finally, i would advocate for any efforts to make early child care more affordable for working families in san francisco. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, ms. lin-arlow. can we move on to liz cortez >> good morning. thank you for the opportunity to speak about my qualifications today. my name is liz cortez and i'm the associate director for the mission promisers initiative, a collective impact prenatal and college initiative that supports families in the mission district. i have worked for eight years with many early learning to align our efforts and support children and families to improve outcomes around school readiness. i worked in various capacities

implementing early head start and head start programs. i have years in experience in the education field. i come from an immigrant family and i'm the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college. i'm applying for seat number 8 as a community member with expertise in early care and education that provides families and child care providers with support around financial istanbul, business development, affordable housing and connection to supportive services. i believe all children in san francisco should have access to the best early care and education possible. additionally, when we dissect the data, we consistently see that black and brown children and families are not doing as well as other families across the city. i believe that these families need specific strategies and we

should invest in this support. we also need to understand what's not working for families at the systems level and address those systemic barriers. we need to have a deeper relationship with families and partner with them to cocreate strategies with them. they know what's best for their families and we should support that. i also agree with the rights to the applicants that representation is very important for this community. thank you again for allowing me to share a little bit about myself. >> chairman: thank you, so much. and, why don't we move on to the one applicant for seat 9, sara hicks-kilday. >> good morning, chair peskin, and supervisor mandelman and chan. i'm an applicant for the child care planning and advisory counsel seat which is seat 9.

i first want to also appreciate your passing of the legislation and strengthening the oversight bodies last tuesday and moving this process forward. currently, i'm an appointed member of san francisco's local plan and counsel known as c.p.a.c.. i also sit on c.p.a.c.'s executive body and the members of c.p.a.c. elected me to a member a year ago and i've been waiting for the seat back appointment to move forward. last week the policy and legislative committee. as a member of cpac i bring the board of educators to the advisory body. holds convenings with center and family child care educators focused on identifying issues

and needs to support their work and livelihood. bringing educators and expertise into policies. i bring to my work with ecsf my own experience as past educator focused primarily on infants and toddlers, a parent who ran a home-based co-op and expanse for early care and education. i cochaired the ad hoc committee and worked with the committee to identify the cost parody with educators as well as to identify priority benefits and barriers. i am committed to continued work expanding community engagement in planning

including every applicant not appointed here today and strengthening the information and community input. we need every person involved in the discussion and we need to stir up more interest to get at what we really need. since the ad hoc community planning committees and in my work with early educators of san francisco, our focus is ensuring the least at the table are included, specifically on site educators, black educators, educators whose first language is spanish, lgbtqi educators and others under represented. we also work to identify and advocate program solutions and i want to thank those of you who are here with prop f to release the prop c funds greatly needed during the pandemic needed already before that. i will bring my work as an

oececac. found a place in the east bay but have worked in the city since that time. up until now and i'm pleased to be considered for this position and offer my experience and knowledge as part of the oversight committee and thank you all for your time here today. >> chairman: thank you, ms. hicks-kilday. before we discuss this at the committee, why don't we go to general public comment, mr. young. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1878969131, then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak.

a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until you are unmuted and you may begin your public comment. we have 17 people in line for public comment at this time. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> hi, good morning to all. my name is elia fernandez. i'm with parent voices of san francisco. i just want to say gina is a wonderful person and i'm speaking to support gina as executive director of childrens counsel. she's also a strong supported parent of community voices and decision making in supportive as children's counsel. thank you so much. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning chair peskin and fellow rules committee chair members. i'm the cochair of the sf early

care and education advocacy coalition and cpac coalition. we are proud and thankful to see c.a.c. seats being filled. and at the advocacy coalition as follows. seat 6, pat sullivan. seat 8, gina fromer. seat 9, sara hicks-kilday. as a member of the southeast community commission. gina is greatly involved in the sfece community and has improved outcomes for black children in san francisco. she has expanded our work in addressing mental health among young children. we appreciate the resolution

approved by the board supervisors on march 16th ensuring that the commercial tax for early care and education dollars and our city funds has strengthened community oversight. the c.a.c. needs applicants who can jump into community and department planning already under way. thank you for your time and consideration. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm beverly baloochin. and i'm represented children and i am here today to support seat number 6, patricia sullivan. seat number 8, gina fromer. and seat number nine, sara hicks-kilday. all three of these candidates are very active and

knowledgeable and are really supporting and have been for a number of years working early care and education. i just want to say also that we really appreciate the resolution approved by the board of supervisors on 3/16 for bringing these positions, the appointments to make them active and we really look forward to people being able to just pick up where we are and go right ahead with this important work. so thank you very much for today. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker >> hi. good morning, supervisors. my name is maria. i'm the organizer of parent voices for the last 25 years. i was also a cpac member for 23

years and supervisor of the legislative committee. i have attended oece meetings. and i expect that gina fromer would also bring. as a community person and as ceo of children's counsel, i know that gina is strongly supportive of parent voices and community voices and as someone who has experienced giving subsidized care herself, she is very well versed and experienced the issues of early care and child care firsthand other than the fact [inaudible] she would also have access to a lot of very useful information that the o.e.c.e. would need. we are expecting the biggest infusion from prop c and i believe that gina has the best

knowledge and information and energy and the spirit to hear from parents and the community and that is what we need at the oece. we support her appointment for seat 8. patricia sullivan for seat 6 and also sara. please appoint her. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. good morning everyone. i am from parents voices in san francisco. for over six years. i'm calling to support gina fromer for the incredible work she does with families and communities of color in addition to education as a leader and director of the children's counsel. thank you so much. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker.

>> hello. i'm here. i'm in support of gina fromer for becoming the c.a.c. president. and i want to say that i had many -- i know her through childrens' counsel because parent voices is an agency that is home at the childrens counsel and as a parent and gina as advocated for my family and she's very approachable. she truly can bring the voices of parents in need of child care to the c.a.c.. so i really highly recommend her because she not only represents the african american community, but also the immigrant community in many levels. she's been leading childrens'

counsel in a very wonderful way. so i'm really happy to recommend her because she really would be great for our community too. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hi, good morning. my name is lee marquez and i am -- i have 10 years of higher education administration experience and then i had to become an active full-time parent with two little ones back to back. i'm currently a san francisco resident and very active in san francisco community with regards to child care and parent advocacy and i wanted to call in today to support the following seat 6 patricia sullivan, seat 9 sara kilday

and seat 8 gina fromer. i felt gina's passion and dedication through her experience and that's really something that resinates to me. so i think it's really strong. it's important to get candidates and advocates that are passionate, have experience and can be an asset to our and i think those three can definitely do that. thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> clerk: i believe that may have been our last caller. >> yes. we have no more callers in queue. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed. thank you to all of the applicants and to all of the members of the public who testified on this item number 4. colleagues, before we discuss this, i would like to give maya

castleman and the staff in the office specifically as it relates to the mayor's five seats. i understand there are vacancies there who are individuals who like what who are sitting on expired seats as this community grapples with making sure that we have a diverse set of representatives on this body. so, with that, if you're available, the floor's yours. >> hi everyone. thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and as all of the applicants said, we really appreciate the efforts to move all of these appointments forward. at the body is half appointed by the board. under the mayor's per view,

there are several seats with specific requirements and a seat that represents a parent or guardian of a child care and services. seat two is a representative of the school district who is recommended by the school superintendent. that recommendation to succeed the current person who fills that seat was committed in 2019 and we've just been waiting and pending approval by the mayor's office. the parent seat that i mentioned, seat number 1, the previous parent representative resigned in 2019. we're waiting for the mayor's office to post a vacancy notice and we are, you know, on stand by and ready to get the message out to the community to have parents apply. seat number 3 is currently filled by sanda davidson and

must be an early education provider that serves infants and toddlers ages zero to three. fonda has officially served one term. similar to the issue that you guys talked about with patricia sullivan. you know, her term expired and so she's been acting in the body of the holdover since then and if she is allowed would reapply as an encumbent. seat number 4 must be -- it's a very similar requirement to the seat number 8 that we've been talking about today. basically, it has a pretty broad requirement. must be a family support provider, provider or educator who working with children of special needs, a community member with expertise in early education, a member of the mental health community. so the same requirements as

seat 8. that seat is filled by jerry yang whose first term expired in may 2019. we just haven't gotten approval of that application from the mayor's office. so this would then again bring up this issue about the length of holdovers. i will mention he has served as the member of the committee for the past three years. and then, seat number 5 must be a representative of the institution of higher education. and it is currently filled by [inaudible] who's final term expired may 2020. and, again, we are waiting for the mayor's office to post a vacancy application for that seat. so i hope that covers your

questions. >> chairman: thank you, ms. castleman. that was super helpful and i think the community identified and your chair identified that we need to reappoint people and appoint people to vacancy and so this now has our attention and so we are doing it in real time. thank you, ms. castleman. if there are no questions for ms. castleman, and i see supervisor mandelman's name on the roster. i would like to make this high level suggestion that we have coming our next meeting which is april the 5th which is that perhaps we can, the community and the providers and this chairperson work with the

mayor's office and mayor breed's appointments staff to see whether or not we can accommodate some of the embarrassment of rich that is we. that may not be the case with seat number 9. given the hold overand the two-term limit around seat 6 and given the number of applicants some of whom clearly can be accommodated by the mayor's appointments, all of whom seem to be qualified. perhaps colleagues, we might want to consider continuing

this file to the 5th and sending it to the full board as a committee report. and, by the way, given there's no board meeting next week, it would get there at the exact same time. so there's really no delay. so i just want to throw that idea out there. and, with that, vice chairman mandelman, the floor is yours. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. i know it's particular to have these extraordinarily well-qualified people for this one seat is an embarrassment of riches and great and also kind of a problem. i do happen to know two of these applicants and i think quite highly of them. they both work but do not live in district 8. gina fromer who a number of folks who called in to support

began her current division of children's counsel just before the pandemic so i haven't gotten to know her as well as i would have liked but have seen some of her excellent work and then heather morado who i do know quite well and am a big fan of and who does tremendous work both in the community and at that institution. and so i imagine that i'm not saying similarly excellent things about the others because i have not happened to cross paths with them. so we have some hard choices and some truly excellent candidates. >> chairman: thank you, vice chair mandelman. member chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. i agree. i am in support of continuance and just really look forward to

seeing folks especially those that actually have institutional knowledge in the intent of prop c that was passed about, you know, how can we provide affordable, quality child care service in san francisco. i, for one, as a mom that really was struggling years ago when my son was still a toddler, you know, to try to find quality, but really affordable child care service. and so i appreciate everybody's work and knowledge and experience on this. and, again, i do see in the coming months that we're going to hear more and more of those who have lived here for a long time and worked here for a long time in san francisco. and, unfortunately, gentrified or priced out of san francisco in need of a residency waiver, but their hearts are still left behind in san francisco. and i am just -- i think that

eventually, we should come to have a conversation really about how do we address residency waiver in the long-term especially for those we know that really qualify and have worked and dedicated their time in san francisco. so thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. and, let me just state my own personal bias. i'm super into ms. fromer and ms. june lin-arlow, but everybody is qualified and committed. with that, colleagues, you have my promise that in the intervening two weeks together with the providers and the community will reach out to the mayor's office and ms. castleman to see whether or not we can have some of our cake and eat some of it too. with that, i would like to make a motion to continue this item

number 4 to our next meeting of april, the 5th. mr. clerk, on that motion, a roll call please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion [roll call] >> clerk: the motion to continue passes without objection. >> chairman: next item, please. >> clerk: next on the agenda is a motion approving the mayor's nomination for appointment of lashgs shawndra price-breston to the treasure island development authority. >> chairman: let me just say she comes highly recommended from any number of individuals that i hold in high esteem. the application speaks for itself.

she has support of the district 6 supervisor whose district encompasses treasure island. and, with that introduction, mrs. price-breston, the floor is yours. >> thank you supervisors. i've been a san francisco resident all my life. i've been on the frontline in many areas. i'm a hazardous waste [inaudible] i'm a recurring certified medical assistant. i've worked in the c.l. as a services counselor. i've held lots of votes in the employment office [inaudible] and i'm really happy to be active in that. obviously recommendations for [inaudible] -- which i think is very

important. [inaudible] -- i've taken many classes on violence. i love my community and i see a lot of changes coming. there's going to be a lot of changes coming and, you know, i'm pleased to say when the quarantine hit, i think the island residents were more secured than anybody in san francisco. [inaudible] -- navigating. i look forward to being a voice of of the residents. i look forward to the changes to help anything that the residents out here need. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. why don't we open this up to public comment. are there any members of the public who would like to speak to the mayoral nomination of ms. price-breston to the treasure island development

board. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item call 1 (415) 655-0001 i.d. number 1878969131. press pound and then pound again. at this time, we only have one listener and nobody in the queue to speak at this time. >> chairman: okay. then public comment is closed. colleagues, i would like to make an amendment to the item before us which is to remove in the long title at line 3, the word "rejecting" and to remove in the body of the motion at line 8, the word "reject". on that motion, a roll call please. >> clerk: yes. on the motion to amend.

[roll call] >> clerk: the motion to amended passes without objection. >> chairman: and, then, colleagues, if there is no objection. i would like to send the item as amended to the full board with recommendation. on that motion, mr. clerk. >> clerk: on that motion to recommend as amended. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion to recommend as amended is adopted without objection. >> chairman: ms. price-breston you'll be before the full board of supervisors on april 5th. and we are adjourned.

>> thank you so much, supervisors. i'll see you then. >> chairman: see you next week after next. >> calm the roll please. >> president maxwell. >> here, vice president moran. >> here. >> paulson. >> here. >> harrington. >> here. >> aj a.m.i. >> here. >> we have a quorum. i would like to make an