evening. i call this meeting to order. please take it away, kyle. >> good evening. this is the meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment. the date is tuesday, may 24th, the time is 5:05 p.m. the ringing of cell phones and pagers and similar devices are prohibited. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of anyone using a phone or similar device. for remote participants, note the ringing of cell phones, pagers and similar devices can happen virtually and is still prohibited. please turn your devices off. due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect commissioners, department staff, and members of the public, commissioners and department staff may participate in the

meeting remotely. the exception is taken to the stay-at-home order and proceeding and preceding local state and federal orders, declarations and directive. commissioners may attend the meeting through video conference or telephone if the video fails and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment will be available on each item in agenda. comments on matters not in the agenda, there will be an opportunity for general public comment. participates who wish to comment in person will be asked to come forward and three minute to speak each. members of the public participating remotely may comment by calling into the meeting. opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available via phone by calling 415-655-0001 and entering access code

24947091641. when connected, dial star three to be added to the queue. sf gov is streaming the number at the top of the screen. best practices are to call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly and silence any other devices. alternatively, members of the public may submit public comment by e-mail to environment at sf gov dot org. comments submitted via e-mail will be forwarded to the commissioners and will be included as part of the official file. i will now call the roll. president ting >> here. stephenson is excused. commissioner bermejo is excused and commissioner hunter is excused, commissioner sullivan? >> here. >> commissioner walled. >> here. >> commissioner wan >> here. commissioner, we have a

quorum. >> thank you. next item. >> the next item is the president's welcome and this item is for discussion. >> good evening, everyone. the commission on the environment technologies that we occupy the unseated and homeland of the ramatish people who are the inhabitants peninsula. they understand the interconnectedness of all things and maintained harmony with nature for what linea. we honor them for their enduring commitment to mother earth as the indigenous protecters of this land and in accordance with their traditions, they have not seeded or loss or forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place and all people who reside in their traditional territory. we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland as guests, we affirm that sovereign rights as first peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders and relatives of the ramashi community. as

environmentalist, we recognize we must embrace indigenous nature of how we care for all their people. thank you for this important acknowledgement. very briefly for the president's welcome, i want to welcome everybody to seeing to the brief commission on the environment committee. we had another meeting two weeks ago about general matters before the commission and our public review. today our queue substantive item will be on a presentation on the commissions role in selecting a new department director by down kate howard, the managing director deputy at the department of human resources and if you have observed this process at other departments, other commissions, it is a very long process. it will take at least six months, if not longer. and during that time, i'll grateful for act being director tyron jue's leadership and bringing us

through a critical phase for the department as we continue to figure out our expanding budget in the next two months as well as our climate action plan as well, which of course, director jue will take about in his director's report but until then, stay tuned and we hope to have a robust discussion today on the future selection process for our new permanent director as well. so, with that, is there any discussion, commissioners on this item? seeing none, kyle, let's open it up for public comment on the item, then. >> we will begin with public comment in the room. once in-person comment has conclude, we'll go to virtual public comment and anyone in the room who wish to speak, come forward and speak into the microphone. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of the public who wish to make a public comment on this item

should press star three to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, wait until it's your turn to speak. we do have one caller in the queue. >> hello caller, you're unmuted. your three minutes begins now. >> david, i'm just testing to be sure i can be heard. >> we can hear you. >> charles, good, thank you. >> thank you. >> any further callers in the queue? seeing no further callers in the queue, public comment on this item has closed. >> thank you, kyle. next item, please. >> the next item in the agenda is item 3, approval of minutes

of the may 10, 2022, commission on the environment special meeting and explanatory document, may 10th and 2022, draft minutes and discussion and action. >> i'll move approve -- approval of minutes. >> motion by commissioner sullivan and any other discussion on this. if not, let's open it up for public comment. >> we will begin with public comment in the room. once in-person comment have concludes, we'll proceed to remote public comment. anyone in person that would like to speak for public comment. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members public who wish to make a public comment should press star three to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, please

continue to wait until it is your turn to speak. we do have one caller in the queue. >> hello caller, you're unmuted. your three minutes begins now. >> david again much i have no objection to the draft minutes, to the substance, i have reviewed them briefly. once again, i suggest that it be cut in the middle of page 5. i think the additional boil plate for (indiscernible) is appropriate for the agenda but not to the minutes and other boards and commissions have recently indicated those board and commission member that's are participating remotely as to those participating physically in person, i think it's up to the body if you want to satisfy

that in the minutes or the record. i believe, commissioner, president on and commission walled participates two weeks ago. i'm basing it on if and when. as to the substance, have i no objection, thanks for listening. >> thank you for your comment. >> seeing no additional callers in the queue, public comment has closed. >> call roll, kyle. >> president oahn. >> aye. >> vice-president stephenson is excused. commissioner bermejo is excused. commissioner hunter is excused. commissioner sullivan? >> aye. >> commissioner warld.

>> aye >> commissioner wan? >> aye. >> the item passes. next agenda item. >> next agenda item is number four. general public comment. members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on today's agenda. we'll go to public comment in the room and then go to remote public comment. if there's anyone in the room who would like to speak for public comment and please come forward one-by-one and speak into the mic and seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of the public who wish to make a public comment on this item should press star three to be aed to the queue. for those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it is your turn to

speak. and seeing no callers in the queue, public comment on this item has closed. >> all right. thanks, kyle. seeing no further callers, maybe we should move on to the next item. >> the next item is agenda item no. five, presentation on commission role in selecting new department director. and speaker is kate and director at the department of human resources and this item is for discussion. >> do we have you on the line? >> good afternoon, president ahn and members of the commission. i'm kate howard and i'm the managing deputy director in the city of human resources department. i appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today to review the commissions role in selecting a new director

for the department of the environment. and i have a brief presentation for you. kyle, can we have the slide today, thank you. can we do the next slide? so, i'm happy to answer questions as we go and i'm happy to answer them at the end. as is noted here, the charter authorizes the mayor to select a new department head from among three or more candidates that are no, ma'am kneed by the commission on the environment. through your role is really an essential role in this process in that your responsibility as a commission is to conducts a recruitment process which will identify candidates for the director position and interview and evaluate those candidates and then recommend the best candidate to the mayor for her consideration. next slide,

please. i have a high level slide here that provides an overview of the steps to get recruitment, d hr's role in the process is to support the commission in that recruitment. so the first step, we have a full five executive recruitment firms and we're pleased to conduct a request for proposals from those prequalified firms. once we request those on your behalf, the commission will review those proposals or review a summary of those proposals and make a selection. the third step is to begin the recruitment process. that process really begins once you've selected the firm and they'll basically work with you to articulate the job

description and define the candidate that you're looking for, the ideal candidate. they'll also work with you to gather input from a have right of sources as you would like -- variety of sources as you would like. the fourth step is to, once you have approved that candidate profile to begin the recruitment and outreach and so they'll begin to go, really, identify candidates for the job, proactively recruit them into the pool and then start to assess them, evaluate them and see what they can bring back to the commission in step five, a presentation of all of the individuals who applied. once you -- the commission typically reviews that, all the candidates in step five and then, make the determination about which candidates you wish to

interview. selected candidates would be invited to participate in one or more interviews with the commission and at that point, you would collectively make a decision about which candidates you wished to advance to the mayor. prior to advancing those candidates, the firm would conduct the candidates on your behalf and the candidates would be presented potentially transmitted from the commission to the mayor for her consideration. so what's the summary of the -- that's a summary of the process. let's go to the next slide, kyle. this process typically, as president ahn mentioned, the shortest that i have seen it take is four months and i have seen it take up to a year, so it really varies, depending on a number of different factors. but a

six-month timeline is a good standard to plan for. so, as i've mention, we have pre qualified executive recruitment firms that's available to support departments and commissions to the executive recruitment. our role in terms of next steps would be to work with you to, we would go ahead and request proposals for a recruitment firm that wanted to support the commission in your recruitment for a new department head. we could evaluate those proposals based on things like costs, timeline, their experience with recruiting and diverse candidate pool and their experience recruiting for similar positions. and then we would bring back to you a recommendation of one or more firms for your consideration. at that point, you would let, you may know which one or ones you

wanted to move forward with, select -- and then we would, we hold aup the contracts so we would issue a purchase order off that pro and the process could start. that's all of my slides. i'm happy to answer any questions you have. you can take down the slide. >> questions? thank you, commissioner sullivan. >> thank you for your presentation. one question i had, is any part of this process private or is it all done at noticed meetings to which the public attends? >> thank you for the question, commissioner. so, the, let's see. so, the process related to selecting an executive recruitment firm and discussing the qualities that the commission is seeking in a perspective department head,

those would be on your agenda and those would happen within the public meeting. at the point when candidates are being presented to the commission, those conversations and that information about those candidates is in provided in closed session. the same thing would hold true for the interview process. and as you know, the decision to go into a closed session is agendized on a commission meeting and there's deliberation and public comment on those matters. >> got it. that makes sense. there are really two decisions that i see here. one is for the commission. one is the selection of the firm to assist and the second is the selection of the candidates to present to the mayor. i assume both of those

would be done in public? >> um, so typically, when the commission ask dhr to move forward with a particular recruiter on your behalf, that would happen in the public. typically, the commission, when they are advancing names to the mayor, that would be done in a closed session. >> i see. >> however, the commission, upon the selection of the mayor, the commission is required to disclose their vote on the selected candidate. >> thank you. >> other questions? yes, commissioner wald. >> i should back up and say i

have participated in two processes for choosing the executive director in the past, but it might have been three. and in those instances, the commission operated through a sub committee. is that still possible? times have changed but we operated through a subcommittee and the subcommittee met, in one case i was in the subcommittee and we met at 8:00 in the morning in? city basement where we reviewed the files and interviewed the candidates in order to protect their identity. is that kind of process still permitted and is it -- if it is permitted, then

other commissions have relied on with good results? because it might be kind of hard for all of us to get together. it's very labor intention -- time inten, to go through all of the candidates submissions and to sort of prioritize them. >> thank you for the question, commissioner. yes, it is still permissible for commissions to identify members of subcommittee to conduct parts of the process on behalf of the full commission. the mta commission used this process, just the most recent one i recall, they had a subcommittee. the department of public health had a sub, maybe

had a subcommittee. and other commissions have chosen to retain the matter in front of the full commission for the whole process. it really is at the commission's discretion. >> can i ask a follow-up question? >> yes. >> thank you. can you suggest guidelines or criteria we should use in trying to decide whether to go in one direction or another? >> i think the, so the point that you raised regarding the amount of time that the process can take and the ability of commission members to dedicate that time to the process, i think is an important factor to consider. in particular, so, i guess there's two -- there's one more thing, i guess i would say,

when commissions meet weekly, it's easier to schedule the various topics and the discussion items in front of the commission. when the commission meets less frequently, it's challenging to keep the process moving along and so i think that's a factor, potentially, to consider but i think on the -- it's also -- it is an important decision and your recruiter will bring you -- will make an effort to help you narrow down the candidates that applied based on your criteria. >> thank you. that was helpful. >> any other questions? >> sorry. >> one follow up which is, can closed session be done remotely?

>> that may be a technology or, i think that might be a technology question, but i will -- i can advise you that most recently, the puc conducted their recruitment and that process was able to occur, closed session meetings were able to occur remotely. but i think it may be -- there may be technical issues that you want to work through with kyle and the department of technology and sfgov tv. >> that should mean the interviews can be conducted remotely which would be, make it easier than it has been in the past? in materials -- in terms -- >> that's executive credit. the dbi commission conducted all of their interviews remotely.

>> that's where i was going with my leading question. >> okay. and maybe this is the final question, but you know, the next point, decision point in this process, it sounds like we'll have a list of recruiting firms to choose from at our next commission meeting, do you think that's about right, director howard? >> thank you for the question. when is your next commission meeting? >> i believe july 26th, is it -- july 26th. >> i feel confident we can bring firms ready and prepared to work with the commission by the july meeting, yes. >> all right. >> do we select the firm or -- >> yes. >> we do. >> just to clarify, director how war, do you want then -- low weissman-ward, do you want the entire commission to vote on --

to vote on the commission or is it given to a subcommittee? how would you prefer it? >> it really is the -- at your discretion, so i can, i've done this in different ways with different commission. some have asked me to work directly with the commission president to review the applications and then the commission president would either direct me to move forward or would work with the commission to move forward. it happened with a subcommittee and also with the full commission so it really is at your, it's really what the commission prefers, it's not what i prefer. >> with commissioner hunter and bermejo, maybe we should kick this discussion to the next

meeting but i'm open to it be a collaborative discussion. >> july, we'll have the list of the firms? right? >> yes. >> we can decide who will be in the committee or subcommittee? >> i think so. >> and if i could just suggest one potential resource for information on just how it has been done in past but the issues that came up and the reasons why things were done a certain way, is the former deputy of the department which is -- he oversaw all of the or almost all of the selection processes for the previous directors. he lives here in san francisco and i have his e-mail address if the department doesn't and he could

be a resource for zoom and for you in terms of how to think about this, how to frame the process, the pros and cons, so that you know, you could potentially have a series of recommendations for us at the next meeting to, so we can vote on it in terms of the process and how it should go forward. >> and do you happen to know if director or do you happen to know if this person would be applying for the rfp as well? >> oh, no. >> okay. it would be informal. >> he loves retirement. >> if that's the case, it sounds like useful advice. >> no, no, no conflict there. >> that's good. any other words of wisdom for us, director howard? i think if there are no

other -- >> do any department staff involved in this process at all? >> that's a good question. did you hear that, director howard? >> yes. thank you, commissioner wan. no, the only department staff that would be involved in the process would be kyle, as your commission secretary because he'll need to work with me to agendized certain items and with city attorney's office, that would be really the only person involved. >> thanks! >> in terms of other sort of recommendations or next steps, president ahn and members of the commission, what i'm hearing request is that we go forward to request from our group of pre-qualify firms, which among them is interested in working

with the commission on the director recruitment, so we'll proceed with that. and then in addition, it sounds like there's some interest in or further flushing out the options in terms of a subcommittee or not, and i'm happy to work with the commission president and city attorney's office to help you on that. >> that sounds good. >> uh-huh. >> do we have to have a motion on this? >> today is a discussion only item today and yeah, i think the process will move on as it normally has. >> good. >> we should hope to make a decision on the firm at the july meeting, is that our goal, to keep this moving forward? >> also decide whether we have a subcommittee or not? >> yes. those are two items so again, to repeat, whether to have a subcommittee and then to make a decision on the

recruitment firm at the july 6th meeting. any other items or points of discussion? >> if not, if not have a subcommittee and i don't have a position on this, i think it would be helpful to know, unless -- unless we are going to be working with the firm on determining what the actually process is, it would be helpful to me to have a sense of what the process, what the options are or meeting up at 8:00 in the morning or meet after a regular meeting and meet, you know, after all regular meetings. you know, i just don't -- i don't know. and i can't quite figure

out when we're going to know, how we're going to know. >> i'm hoping the july meeting, we'll focus that discussion. >> i know. >> okay. >> that's why i'm -- >> let me collect me memory, i was on committee last time. i think for the last round, we actually do have full commission to sit on the commission, is that right? >> do you remember that? >> the final two -- >> all the finalists. >> right. >> that's the full commission, right? >> yes. for the full commission but i don't think they did before. >> true. >> i think they were widowed out by a process that involved less than the complete commission. >> right, right. correct. >> but that was not the process

that i was involved in, so i don't actually know how. i don't remember how it went or who was involved. >> so, i have a follow-up question for director howard. if we are -- sort of following on that question, if we're required to present a minimum of three to the mayor, how many would you expect to come to the commission through the recruiting firm? i know it varies from time-to-time. would we be looking at six, at ten? >> typically, the commission would review probably between five and eight to narrow it down to three. >> thank you. >> it does depend as you said on the overall candidate pool and you may end up with, you no,

really, one or two out of that pool that really are the commission -- >> thank you. >> if there's no other commission discussion, maybe then we can move on to public comment at this point. kyle, let's open it up then. >> before we start public comment, just given the air conditioning, if the commissioners could speak a little closer to the microphone so we can pick up all audio from today's meeting. we'll begin with public comment in the room. once in-person comment has conclude, we'll proceed to remote public comment. are there members of public who are present in the room today who wish to speak. if so, come forward one-by-one and speak clearly into the mic. seeing none, we will proceed to remote public comment. members of the

public who wish to make a public comment on this item, should press star three to be added to the queue. for those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it's your turn to speak. we do have a caller in the queue. hello caller, you're unmuted. your three minutes begins now. >> can you hear me okay? >> yes. >> great. david, so, several points here, i do not support retaining outside recruitment firm. i think it's a waste of funds. i believe there's plenty eve of candidates in -- plenty of candidates in the bay area, perhaps in the department and certainly within the city, other public agencies, private firms,

nonprofits. but candidates in the bay area, you have heard from commissioner wald that david ossman may be available and he could probably lead the search process, perhaps even a staff employee of the city, so if this is some kind of $50,000 task order for pre-selected recruitment firm, i think that's an absolute waste of funds, particularly, if it involves (indiscernible) paid for by the rate payers so no thank you on that. i would be very clear on what actions are required or allowed in open session verses closed session. i would keep the public informed, although i am not at all interested in the names of candidates that apply. i'm very interested in the number of candidates that apply, so i would like to know at some

point in the future as the process is moving along, for example, that 49 applications are received. it was whittled down to seven or eight. that the commission did a first round of interviews with, you know, either all seven or eight of those candidates or five of them and then brought back x number of can at that time -- candidates for a second round and recommend tree or four more candidates to the mayor. those numbers and the process steps, i think are important for the public to know. i would star with a clear timeline and specific steps in responsibilities internal and external to the department and to the city. next i would determine the desired quality in a director and i would do that soon and finalize the job description, i would not have a selection committee here, this commission has the time to have special meetings, i wouldn't wait two months for the regular meeting and i would schedule a special meeting in a month to

move on this quickly. remote meetings have legal and technical issues and not simple to organize and finally this is listed as a discussion item, future items related to the director search should be listed as discussion and possible action, so that you have maximum discretion as the how to proceed. i would very much suggest having a written plan even if managing director (indiscernible) and she has gotten direction from the commission. you should follow up at the next meeting to formalize the next steps in the process and approve recruitment and selection plan for this position. thanks for listening. >> thank you for your comment.

seeing no additional -- additional callers in the queue, public comment for this item has closed. >> all right. >> thanks everybody for your robust discussion and next item. >> the next item is item 6. director's report. tyron ju, acting director good this item is for discussion. >> thank you, commissioners, thank you, kyle. so, our first meeting we obviously had a very special topic to talk about on may 10th and today's update, it's to talk about all the amazing work i was saying was still going on in the background even in the mist of all that conversation, so i'm pleased to provide today's report on the activities of march and april mostly. the may update will be covered in our july meeting and there's a lot more detail than i'm going to go over. my talking points can be found in the written report but i wanted to flag the highlights and one

of the most important highlights is we know for successful implementation of our climate action plan, it does require row robust community engagement that's the anchor for achieving the goals we want to set out in our plan and i'm pleased to report we had a successful climate action month. thanks to the hard work of our many staff in the department. the fourth annual climate action month outreach campaign ran from march 25th to april 30th and i want to give the highlights of what was done. we created a landing page which cataloged all 130 activity that were taken place that month. and that page received 32,000 visitors. it's 15,000 more visitors than received the previous year so there was an especially crease in the act of activity we saw on that web page. in addition, we did goggle search ads, facebook ads to really promote all activities taking place and we had over $34,000 clicks for the san francisco environment organize events. we also had five live and virtual events

with over 300 registered participants and youth day of service and bike ride in golden gate park and focus event around ev and electrification. on the other hand, we have an amazing outreach team that does work with public schools and they were in hot demand during that period as well. schools are calling, like, hey, can we get someone out to talk to our kids, it was an amazing opportunity. we reached over 2500 kids from k to five where we talk about zero waste and all of our water programs in the sfpuc and did assembly for one hundred high schools so we reached the tougher crowd in the older age group through our the common future program. on the policy side, i do want to follow up on one policy item, which the policy committee heard on which was the antibiotic use in the food animal ore narns. the deadline for reporting, for chicken and turkey and lamb was

postponed to may 31st and i want the commission to be aware. talks are going well with the representatives from the california groceries association so we've been having good conversations with them and we believe we'll have plans to report back to the commission on beef and pork so we're making process thanks to the committee hearing so thank you commission for advancing that conversation. on the legislative front, we are moving forward with an edible food recovery legislation which is being sponsored by president walden. that's scheduled for committee this month and hopefully will be approved on the june 14th board of supervisors meeting. what that does is it codifies what's required under state law under sb1383. but predominantly provides the enforcement mechanism for us to enforce that through the department and so, what this is really aiming at is capturing all the, recovering as much food as possible from large

generators and making sure the food goes in the hands of those who are in need. so bringing the foods to placing like the san francisco food bank and other locations where it can be redistributed out to people and through the pilot program we have done, we've had tremendous successful working with lafrm groceries and supermarket and 3,000 pounds of food were donated to those in need. it's tremendous opportunity and we're glad that president walden is leading that. it will allow the department to be eligible for a cal recycle grant. 1.1 millions. which is actually going to go towards the other part of the kind of circular economy model which is promoting composting activity. so the $1.1 million at cal recycle is offering to the city, it will be used to work with rec. and park and our community guard earns and schools to get compost back in those areas and promote compost activity. another area of

highlight is i wanted to focus the equity work accomplished over the last two months. our energy access sf program, which is a local partnership with pg&e and so they're focusing on providing access and the energy program is for lower income communities and for communities in need. they concluded their ten month of outreach in the bay views hunters point reaching 135 businesses and 200 residences and in april the program began outreach to the mission and neighborhoods reaching over 233 residents and 27 businesses in the first month so they're prioritizing those areas that have been disproportion alley impacted by pollution. we had the zero waste teamwork with our zero waste -- on recycling and compost rollout within the westbrook apartments we is a 200 affordable housing development in district 11 so they work with the residents there on how to properly sort their waste and

actually they're doing really well based on every report, so that direct education and work with the groups in the westbrook apartments is yielding tremendous result. finally, we have our green business program which over the fiscal year recognize 93 businesses so far. and this year they really made an emphasis working with cbo's to partner and receive higher participation rates in our underserved communities so that was a challenge so when they looked at the maps and saw where we were getting participation for our green business programs, they were hold within neighborhoods like the bay view and the mission excel yes, sir so the team did an outstanding job working with cbo's to conduct that outreach so they worked with a number of nonprofits and signed up nine new ones which are neighborhoods of high pollution at vernon and 22 that are insign they're starting to make a difference

and again, that direct outreach using trusted partners within the community to start turning the page there. as we discussed at our may 10th meeting, we're going to start reporting regularly on our ethnics so the three updates we have for this period, we did have all of you fill out your form 700 and myself and the -- designated staff in the department so we hit all deadlines and as a follow up to how discussion, we're working on identifying those additional individuals require to file a form 700 so we had a conversation in the department to talk about and who is covered under that requirement from the department. in addition, we did our invested payment legislation training that was conducted by the city attorney's office by senior staff and we had great discussions around contracting grants and one of the follow ups

there is we're having staff compile their question from all the different programs they have, so we can con so tate everything and kind of present everything to the city attorney's office. we can catalog everything and learn from what programs are doing and what they're allowed and not allowed to do and create that process within the department. and finally, we did, as the department received one gift of two shares for the eco center, it was a total of $510. lastly, i just want to announce the new staff and staff changes. we had several program staff leave the department, so i do want to thank all of them for their service. in particular, we had asia who was our outreach manager. justin who was our press and policy coordinator, suzanne who is our clean transportation program coordinator, and jesse and choy who is our municipal toxic reduction coordinator. we've had several new staff join the department this spring. and

we'll check on their availability to bring them back out when they can introduce themselves back to the commission but i believe we have three staff that are available virtually that wanted to introduce them -- themselves and what they do. we have austina and anna wong and stephanie lee. at the want to bring up each one of them to talk a little bit more what they're going to do. >> can you hear us, augustina? >> yes, can you hear me? >> yes, we can hear you. >> okay, can you see me? >> we cannot see you so far. >> okay. how about there? >> there we go.

>> okay. hi, everyone. nice to meet y'all. and thank you for having me at this commission meeting this afternoon. my name is austina and i apologize, i'm in the car coming back from the field. i was working for one of our projects but i'm an environmental outreach aid for the department and i started last year and it has been a year and a few months now and i really enjoy all work i'm doing. my background is in environmental science. i went to cal poly and i graduated last year as well, so this is my first job right out of college and i'm enjoying it so much. one of the projects that i'm working on right now in the department of environment in the environment outreach team is the reaching disposals program which we work with various areas throughout the whole city and

(indiscernible) for our disposal program which we encourage them to reduce waste by switching to reusables and disposals, so -- [audio difficulties] in district four and district one, and the rest of the team is doing the whole city in all and districts and we're hoping to finish that next month. another project i'm working on is energy access sf. we started last year with our hopes on the bay view in all of district ten and now we have moved in -- in the beginning of 2022, to work on district 11 and it's beneficial to have in-person work back because we're able to switch our outreach strategies to be more than just phone calls and be able to do tabling, presentations in person and i have support in virtual presentations, so that has been

going really well and we're hoping to finish this batch of working in district 11 and the energy access sf in the next month, so it has been going really well and i'm hopeful for the next few projects that we got going on, thank you. >> thank you -- thank you, augustina. >> next, we have ann wong with us. >> can you folks hear and see me? >> we can see and hear you, ann.

>> okay, great. good evening, commissioners. i apologize for not being able too attend in person. my name is annie wong and i'm the new city government fair waste assistant coordinator under the fair waste team. a little about myself, i was born and raised here in this city and i attended the university of california santa cruz and majored in sociology which let me to working in nonprofit in the city surveying asian-pacific islander youth. i joined the department in 2018 under the education team and i became the environmental justice associate working with affordable housing properties with zero waste and integrated waste management program so reporting our department these equity initiative. in my new role, i will work with the city departments employees to develop and implement their zero waste programs and i'll be managing the virtual warehouse. thank you.

>> great. thank you, annie. welcome back, annie. good to see you again. >> we also have stephanie lee with us. stephanie, can you hear us >> yes, i can hear you. one second while i start my video. okay. can you see me? >> we can see you, stephanie, yes. >> awesome, thank you everyone. hi. my name is stephanie and i

recently started in april as the new climate program assistant coordinator. prior to this, i studied innen veneering and urban planning at u.c. san diego and i grew up in city like annie and really was inspired by all the sustainability and environmental education i had growing up here from things like learning how to compost and environmental education, authorization, so really excited to be here with the city and contribute to the programs that inspired and motivated me to pursue environmental engineering so i worked in veerlal consultant prior to this doing investigation work managing construction oversight, regulatory compliance and reporting and also assisted with sustainability metric reporting for the company i work for. and

my new role here as the climate program assistant coordinator, i'll be supporting the greenhouse gas emission inventory and supporting sustainability reporting disclosure and also helping with climate action plan metrics tracking and implementation and i look forward to working with you all. thank you. >> >> thank you, stephanie. and with that, that concludes my report and happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. any commissioner questions? yes, commissioner wald. >> you did not mention the budget director. >> yes. i don't have any new update outside of what i reported on in may 10th, that's why i didn't have new information to share. so, i think we're waiting with data to

see what mayor's budget looks like in middle of june when it's released. >> if there's nothing else, maybe we can move on to public comment, kyle. >> we will begin with public comment here in the room. once in-person comment has conclude, we'll proceed to remote public comment. any members of the public present in the room who wish to speak today. if so, please come forward one-by-one and speak clear -- clearly into the mic. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of public who wish to speak a public comment on this item should press star three to be put in the queue. if already in the queue, please wait for your turn to speak. we do have a caller in queue.

>> hello caller, you're unmuted and your three minutes begins now. >> can you hear me okay? >> yes. >> great. david, hopefully the last time tonight. so, in the director's report, there's? new content more specifics about contracts and grants. it suggest having more controls and oversight at the commission level contracts and grants, rfp's, there's specific dates here and there's a few dates missing. i'll take some of that off mine. on the staff changes, i did not know jesse and troy left the department, she was always fun and i will certainly miss that. i think at least one other staff person who i referred to previously has also

left the department and has not reported, perhaps it didn't finalize during this period but there were others who were referred to including asia and joseph, so there may be more of a recap in next written report. it seems to me the department personnel changes are occurring more quickly and in my view, that will likely continue as staff transitions occur. i hope that people are briefing each other and there's? training -- there's training occurring so programs can occur as seamlessly as possible as well as given new and greater emphasis to ethics training and who is involved in decision-making. i'm wondering about the status of board of supervisors file 220199, back on gas powered landscaping

equipment, that was last at the budget committee a couple of weeks ago and continued to the call of the chair. i assume the discussions are ongoing, perhaps, we could hear a sentence or two on that. finally, michael with the puc announced last week he's retiring in a month at the end of the fiscal year, acting director jue and i and charles have all worked with michael at puc. i believe he's been a big supporter of the environmental department and its programs and had a partnership between environment and puc. his knowledge of the (indiscernible) operations and his interest in the environment is going to be hard to replace but i hope we continue to have a good relationship with the puc going forward. i'm not sure that the

commission needs to take any action to appreciate his work over there but perhaps if there is a good away event that the department would be represented and conveyed thoughts about michael and thanks for listening. >> thank you for your comment. seeing no first caller in the queue, public comment on this item is closed. >> next item, kyle. >> next item is item 7, committee reports. this item is for discussion. >> commissioner sullivan, you're up to talk about the policy committee. >> sure. so, the policy committee met april 11th. the committee heard an update on the antibiotic ordinance including presentations by general jackson and tim from the california

grocer association and james thompson, iowa state university, dr. timothy. the next meeting will take place on monday june 13th at 5:00 p.m. thank you. >> commissioner sullivan. commissioner wong, a report on the operations commitsy. >> here, the operations committee last met on april 20th and we had three presentations including zero waste career pathways pilot program. healthy homes program and essential worker ride home program. our next meeting will be on wednesday, july 20th at 5:00. >> any other discussion, commissioners? seeing none. let's go to public comment, kyle. >> we will begin with public comment here in the room. once in-person comment has concluded, we'll proceed to remote public comment. are there members of the public present in the room who wish to speak, if so, come forward one-by-one and speak clearly into the mic. seeing none, we will proceed to remote

public comment. members of the public who wish to make a public comment on this item should press star three to be added to the queue. for those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it's your turn to speak. seeing no calls in the queue, public comment on this item is closed. >> thank you, kyle. next item, please. >> the next item is item 8. new business, future agenda items. the speaker is charles sheehan, chief policy and public affairs office. -- officer. this item is for discussion. >> thank you, charles, chief policy and public affairs. the next meeting is june 13th and next operations meeting is july 20th and next operations meeting is july 26th. for the

upcoming commission meeting, we're looking at a couple of agenda items much one, the annual green purchasing report approval that you see every year. secondly, potentially a presentation from our director on his vision for the department that might also come at a further, at a later meeting. planning would like to give us an update on the safety and resilience element and update to the san francisco general plan. we're still working and looking at record retention. we'll bring that at some point, i do promise. and of course, we do want to per i cannily check in with you on how our engagement with the implementation of our climate action plan is going so probably too many agenda items for the next meeting but there's always a lot to talk about on the environment so i'll take any questions you may have. >> thank you, charles. any other discussion from commissioners? seeing none, let's go to public comment again, kyle. >> we will begin with public

comment here in the room. once in-person comment has conclude, we'll proceed to remote public comment. any members of the public present in the room who wish to speak and if so, come forward one-by-one and speak clearly into the mic. seeing none, we'll proceed to remote public comment. members of public who wish to make a public comment on this item should press star three to be added to the queue. for those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until it's your turn to speak. seeing no callers in the queue, we can close public comment on this item. >> thank you. next item then, please. >> the next item is item no. nine, adjournment. the meeting is adjourned. the time is 60 the

-- 6:09 p.m. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. [gavel] dev mission's goal is aiming to train young adults, youth so we can be a wealth and disparity in underserved communities like where we are

today. my name is leo sosa. i'm the founder and executive director for devmission. we're sitting inside a computer lab where residents come and get support when they give help about how to set up an e-mail account. how to order prescriptions online. create a résumé. we are also now paying attention to provide tech support. we have collaborated with the san francisco mayor's office and the department of technology to implement a broad band network for the residents here so they can have free internet access. we have partnered with community technology networks to provide computer classes to the seniors and the residents.

so this computer lab becomes a hub for the community to learn how to use technology, but that's the parents and the adults. we have been able to identify what we call a stem date. the acronym is science technology engineering and math. kids should be exposed no matter what type of background or ethnicity or income status. that's where we actually create magic. >> something that the kids are really excited about is science and so the way that we execute that is through making slime. and as fun as it is, it's still a chemical reaction and you start to understand that with the materials that you need to make the slime. >> they love adding their little twists to everything. it's just a place for them to experiment and that's really what we want. >> i see. >> really what the excitement behind that is that you're

making something. >> logs, legos, sumo box, art, drawing, computers, mine craft, and really it's just awaking opportunity. >> keeping their attention is like one of the biggest challenges that we do have because, you know, they're kids. they always want to be doing something, be helping with something. so we just let them be themselves. we have our set of rules in place that we have that we want them to follow and live up to. and we also have our set of expectations that we want them to achieve. this is like my first year officially working with kids. and definitely i've had moments where they're not getting something. they don't really understand it and you're trying to just talk to them in a way that they can make it work teaching them in different ways how they can get the light bulb to go off and i've seen it first-hand and it makes me so happy when it does go off because it's like, wow, i helped them understand this

concept. >> i love playing games and i love having fun with my friends playing dodge ball and a lot of things that i like. it's really cool. >> they don't give you a lot of cheese to put on there, do they? you've got like a little bit left. >> we learn programming to make them work. we do computers and programming. at the bottom here, we talk to them and we press these buttons to make it go. and this is to turn it off. and this is to make it control

on its own. if you press this twice, it can do any type of tricks. like you can move it like this and it moves. it actually can go like this. >> like, wow, they're just absorbing everything. so it definitely is a wholehearted moment that i love experiencing. >> the realities right now, 5.3 latinos working in tech and about 6.7 african americans working in tech. and, of course, those tech companies are funders. so i continue to work really hard with them to close that gap and work with the san francisco unified school district so juniors and seniors come to our program, so kids come to our stem hub and be exposed to all those things. it's a big challenge. >> we have a couple of other

providers here on site, but we've all just been trying to work together and let the kids move around from each department. some kids are comfortable with their admission, but if they want to jump in with city of dreams or hunter's point, we just try to collaborate to provide the best opportunity in the community. >> devmission has provided services on westbrook. they teach you how to code. how to build their own mini robot to providing access for the youth to partnerships with adobe and sony and google and twitter. and so devmission has definitely brought access for our families to resources that our residents may or may not have been able to access in the past. >> the san francisco house and development corporation gave us the grant to implement this program. it hasn't been easy, but we

have been able to see now some of the success stories of some of those kids that have been able to take the opportunity and continue to grow within their education and eventually become a very successful citizen. >> so the computer lab, they're doing the backpacks. i don't know if you're going to be able to do the class. you still want to try? . yeah. go for it. >> we have a young man by the name of ivan mello. he came here two and a half years ago to be part of our digital arts music lab. graduating with natural, fruity loops, rhymes. all of our music lyrics are clean. he came as an intern, and now he's running the program. that just tells you, we are only creating opportunities and

there's a young man by the name of eduardo ramirez. he tells the barber, what's that flyer? and he says it's a program that teaches you computers and art. and i still remember the day he walked in there with a baseball cap, full of tattoos. nice clean hair cut. i want to learn how to use computers. graduated from the program and he wanted to work in i.t.. well, eduardo is a dreamer. right. so trying to find him a job in the tech industry was very challenging, but that didn't stop him. through the effort of the office of economic work force and the grant i reached out to a few folks i know. post mates decided to bring him on board regardless of his legal status. he ended his internship at post mates and now is at hudacity.

that is the power of what technology does for young people that want to become part of the tech industry. what we've been doing, it's very innovative. helping kids k-12, transitional age youth, families, parents, communities, understand and to be exposed to stem subjects. imagine if that mission one day can be in every affordable housing community. the opportunities that we would create and that's what i'm trying to do with this >> i don't want to be involved

in the process after it happens. i want to be there at the front end to help people with something in my mind from a very early age. our community is the important way to look at things, even now. george floyd was huge. it opened up wounds and a discussion on something festering for a long time. before rodney king. you can look at all the instances where there are calls for change. i think we are involved in change right now in this moment that is going to be long lasting. it is very challenging. i was the victim of a crime when i was in middle school. some kids at recess came around at pe class and came to the locker room and tried to steal my watch and physically

assaulted me. the officer that helped afterwards went out of his way to check the time to see how i was. that is the kind of work, the kind of perspective i like to have in our sheriff's office regardless of circumstance. that influenced me a lot. some of the storefronts have changed. what is mys is that i still see some things that trigger memories. the barbershop and the shoe store is another one that i remember buying shoestrings and getting my dad's old army boots fixed. we would see movies after the first run. my brother and i would go there. it is nice. if you keep walking down sacramento. the nice think about the city it takes you to japan town. that is where my grandparents were brought up.

that is the traditional foods or movies. they were able to celebrate the culture in that community. my family also had a dry-cleaning business. very hard work. the family grew up with apartments above the business. we have a built-in work force. 19 had 1 as -- 1941 as soon as that happened the entire community was fixed. >> determined to do the job as democracy should with real consideration for the people involved. >> the decision to take every one of japan niece american o japanese from their homes. my family went to the mountains and experienced winter and summer and springs.

they tried to make their home a home. the community came together to share. they tried to infuse each home are little things. they created things. i remember my grand mother saying they were very scared. they were worried. they also felt the great sense of pride. >> japanese americans. >> my granduncle joined the 442nd. when the opportunity came when the time that was not right. they were in the campaign in italy. they were there every step of the way. >> president truman pays tribute. >> that was the most decorated

unit in the history of the united states army. commitment and loyal to to the country despite that their families were in the camp at that time. they chose to come back to san francisco even after all of that. my father was a civil servant as well and served the state of california workers' compensation attorney and judge and appellate board. my parents influenced me to look at civil service s.i applied to police, and sheriff's department at the same time. the sheriff's department grabbed me first. it was unique. it was not just me in that moment it was everyone. it wasn't me looking at the crowd. it was all of us being together. i was standing there alone. i felt everyone standing next to me. the only way to describe it.

it is not about me. it is from my father. my father couldn't be there. he was sick. the first person i saw was him. i still sometimes am surprised by the fact i see my name as the sheriff. i am happy to be in the position i am in to honor their memory doing what i am doing now to help the larger comment. when i say that we want to be especially focused on marginalized communities that have been wronged. coming from my background and my family experienced what they did. that didn't happen in a vacuum. it was a decision made by the government. nobody raised their voice. now, i think we are in a better place as country and community.

when we see something wrong we have change agents step up to help the community affected. that is a important thing to continue to do. you talk about change and being a leader in change and not knowing whether you have successes or results. the fact of the matter is by choosing to push for change you have already changed things. through inspiration for others, take up the matter or whether it is through actual functional change as a result of your voice being heard. i think you have already started on a path to change by choosing that path. in doing that in april of itself creates change. i continue in that type of service for my family. something i hope to see in my children. i have a pretty good chance with five children one will go into some sort of civil service. i hope that happens to continue

that legacy. >> i am paul, sheriff of san francisco. [ music ]

>> you're watching san francisco rising with chris manors. today's special guest is mary chu. >> hi. i'm chris manors, and you're rising on san francisco rising. the show that's focused on rebuilding, reimagining, and restarting our city. our guest today is mary chu, and she's here to talk with us about art and the san francisco art commission. well come, miss chu. >> thanks for having me. >> it's great to have you. let's talk about art in the city and how art installations are funded. >> the arts committee was

funded in 1932 and support civic review, design investments and art galleries. projects we have are funded by the city's art enrichment ordinance which provides 2% of construction costs for public art. >> so art is tied to construction. there's been a great deal in the southwest of the city. can you talk about some of the projects there? >> sure. our city has some exciting projected in the bayview-hunters point coming up. one artist created a photo

collage. in the picture pavilion, one artist formed a collage of her one-year residency coming together with residents, and anchoring the new center is a landmark bronze sculpture, inspired by traditional ivory coast currency which the artists significantly enlarges to mark that it's a predominantly african american community in bayview hunters point. >> are there any art installations around town that uses light as a medium?

>> yes. the first is on van ness between o'farrell and geary. it's funded with the m.t.a.s van ness geary street project. another project is for the central subway. it is one of ten artworks commissioned for the new line. it's over 650 feet long, consists of 550 l.e.d. panels between the powell street station and the union street station. it's called lucy in the sky, and the lights are patterned with unique sequences so that commuters can experience a unique pattern each time they pass through. >> perfect. what about the early day

sculpture that was removed from the civic center? >> this is a question that cities have been grappling with nationwide. following the removal of early days in 2018, there was a toppling of statues in golden gate park as well as the removal of the christopher columbus statue. we are partnering with the parks department as well as the community to engage with the public to develop guidelines to evaluate the existing monuments and memorials in the civic arts collection and evaluate the removal of a monument or statue but also installing new ones. >> finally, it seems like the weather might be nice this weekend.

if i fancy taking a walk and seeing some outdoor art, where would you suggest i go? >> well, i would suggest the embarcadero. this work was commissioned with funds from the fire station 35. this suggests the bow of a boat and the glass panel surrounding the structure depict the history of fireboats in the bay area. >> and where can i go from there? >> then, i would walk up to the justin herman plaza to check out the work of the art vendors. then check out the monuments like the mechanics monument. also, be sure to check out the poster series, installed in bus

kiosks along market street, which features four artists each year. >> well, thank you. i appreciate you coming on the show, miss chu. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, chris. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back with another show

>> restaurants will be open for take out only, but nonessential stores, like bars and gyms, will close effective midnight tonight. [♪♪♪]