>> abstaining. >> madam chair johnson? >> aye. >> madam chair, the vote is 3 ayes, one absanction, one absent. >> thank you very much. the next alioto-pier item on our consent agenda that we're going to consider is an extension of the personal services contract for overland pacific and kutler, inc., they are charged with the relocation program for the shipyard, hunters point shipyard. there is no change to the budget or to the scope of work. we are looking at an extension here because of the solution of redevelopment. there were delays in many parts of the work that we do, including to the scope of work for this, for this contractor. so, we're looking at a six-month extension, same scope, same piper jaffray. are there any questions or comments on this item? >> no. >> seeing none -- >> i move that. >> thank you very much. is there a second? >> second. >> thank you very much. madam secretary, please call the roll. >> commission members please announce your vote when i call your name. commissioner ellington? >> aye. >> [speak

i will bring up the madam chair you didn't mention the madam chair. i think it's important whether to move that i don't know from an architecture point of view where it should be and if the madam chair is the end all of the fountain but i think it's very important for the public to be aware of the value of that resource >> commissioner pearlman before i call on you i will say that the comment on the madam chair to add a brazil madam chair for the core sense of the fountain. >> in response defined the historic resource here so that's part of the discussion technically is the fountain is a historic resource. i mean has it been determined to be a historic resource. i thought see. so my question is obviously the building isn't it's not considered contributing to the district and it's only 35 e.r. 40 years old so if it does affect the historic resource i mean in terms of making the judgment the fountain is in the process t is this something we should be considering. that's role to the department. and i would say to what scale and a exactly i think it's bee

could i ask madam chair and the city attorney could explain it. this is before us, right now, for a vote, whether we will vote up or down, the stipulation, and that enjoining with the fppc,; is that correct?? >> right, the fppc has approved their portion of the settlement and i think that what is before us now is whether the commission wants to approve the violations of local law, that were admitted to the stipulation. >> i plan on voting for it, what if we all turned it down tonight, what would happen then? >> i can answer that. >> okay. >> the fppc would likely sever their part out and, renegotiate that part with the respondent and move on without us. and then we would have to renegotiate with the respondent for our own settlement. and then, if the respondent will not come to terms with us, then we end up going to a hearing on the merits, which is a finding of probable cause and a public hearing on the merits. >> thank you, that is, that is quite helpful. >> and so, in regard to our deliberations of this matter, if we were to decide determining

. >> madam chair? i have not challenged the staff and i am complimenting the staff and in regard to one thing that i don't understand that commissioner renne said is that if we wanted to discuss this, and we go into it, and it would have to be done in the private session and i am looking here at the letter that i got from mr. st. croix, relating to this matter, and when i first got it. and in the final paragraph, he says, due to the fppc public deliberation adecember macing of the attached exhibit they have advised the staff that the ethic's commission should be conducted in open session, not in private. okay. >> you said that it has to be done in a private session, that is not what mr. st. croix is saying here, that is not what the city attorney is saying. >> but we do it in open session and, that is what we are doing now. because it was requested that we put it on the calendar. >> and i am sorry, could i just quickly interject? i think that the discussion is getting too far afield from the agenda ite

it is so nice to be able to say madam chair. and thank you for your indulgence in really sitting through a lot of questions. i don't remember the former chair indulging us this way. maybe things will change after you're here for a time or two. i have some questions. let me start out with some macro economic questions. there's a lot of criticism about quantitative easing and the positions that the fed has taken, the fed policy, and on the other end of the street here congress has been engaging in more and more and more fiscal austerity. is it fair to say that we're kind of working across purposes here, you know, on one end we're forcing real austere cuts, the economy is slowing while you're doing quan at this at this titi economy is slowing while you're doing quan at this at this titi? it's my thought that we might be able to slow down on quantitative easing if we weren't forcing such austerity on the economy. your thoughts? >> well, i agree. i basically agree with your point. >> madam chair, i don't think your microphone is on or

. >> madam chair? >> we will indeed, focus on adjudicating it and in fact, as i said, i intend to vote for the stimulation. but, i think that in regard to the procedures themselves, where we have a matter of such public significance, that shows a conflict of interest to this extent, that it should be something that routinely this commission will take up and that it will be calendared for discussion and that we do discuss it and we have the staff talk about it and we get into the background of the investigation and we have and let the public know what it is that we have done in relation to a matter of significant public interest, relating to a conflict of interest by a high official. and benefiting by working for another company and voting and lobbying her department. i think that we, and at some point in the future, picking up on what commissioner hur said, we should change our procedures we should talk about it and analyze it with the members of the public, and in addition to that, get some sort of re

madam chair the vote is 3ize and one abstinence. thank you very much call the next item >> the next order of business is regular agenda 5 b workshop on a memoranda of the mayor's office housing for the implementation of the retained housing discussion. madam chair. excuse me. madam director >> good afternoon, commissioners and members of the public. commissioners you know you have exorbitantly obligations in the project areas and for did you affordable housing obligations the with respect housing obligation. this workshop is a precursor to our budget and really confirms an existing practice through budgets you've approved and the working relationship with the mayor's office of housing and the housing community development ass and is successor that will take our assets and obligations. not that i recall the board of supervisors asked the commission to and oc i staff to collaborate with the housing obligations so once we've taken our public comment we'll certainly file a written report to the board of supervisors how that collaboratio

johnson: madam chair, i'd yield four minutes to the gentlewoman from texas. the chair: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for four minutes. ms. jackson lee: thank you. i want to thank my good friend, congressman johnson, for his leadership and the management of this legislation. i thank the chairman as well and for the kurt cisextended to members to -- courtesies extended to members to allow us to have a vigorous discourse on issues that impact the lives of the american people. i'd just like us to take a journey down memory lane, and i'm sure that many of us will e reminded of the famous pinto and the original crafting of that automobile. no commentary on the great industry that so many of us admire, but for those of us who have memories, we realize some of the injuries that occurred in the structure of the pinto. or maybe cars without seat belts or air bags or maybe we recall times when we traveled throughout our community and we noticed not only a heavy fog but polluted air. maybe some of us have been exposed to polluted water. or maybe you've traveled

and thank you madame chair for being here. we've heard from the other side of the aisle that the president's policies are not having any ill effect on the economy. yet, chair yelen, we have just recently all seen a report from the cbo that the obamacare affordable care act is estimated to cost 2.5 million jobs over the next decade. do you believe that regulation or overregulation has an impact on our economic growth and in the job creations? >> chair, yellen, i don't think your microphone is on. can you see if it's on, and if it is, please pull it closer to you. i apologize. i think certainly regulation has an impact on the economy, on economic growth. and there are many economic studies that have tried to document what it is. i think in the case of the affordable care act, cbo has done important analysis and probably will continue to look at it, i think they've recognized that the impact of the act is likely to be come flex. i think they're still attempting to figure out what all of the different channels are by which it will

it's my hope -- and again, madam chair, i have been the chair for a little bit over a week -- it's my hope and expectation that this report will be ready for release next month or in early april. the finance committee, as i have indicated, is the committee of jurisdiction. it has the technical resources, the expertise and experience to best fashion the appropriate remedies. and my view is these matters are simply too important to be handled on the floor without the opportunity for the finance committee to address these issues, to examine them in hearings and to have meaningful debate. now, the senator from arizona believes that the new rules from the i.r.s. are not fair because they limit the public debate. i just want to indicate to him and to our colleagues that i don't take a back seat to anybody in terms of promoting public debate. free speech and fair treatment for all americans, all americans in the political process is absolutely central to what i believe government ought to be all about. and madam chair, i have tried with our colleague from alaska, senator murkowski, to show t

madam chair. >> thank you very much. do we have any speaker cards? >> oscar james. >>> oscar james again. i want to bring up two things that -- well, three things that's been bothering me. one, certificate of preference holders in south -- well, i would say down by moscone center, that area, there were people that were relocated out in those houses, too, that had certificates that has not been brought up. and i think they should be added onto the list of certificate holders. the other thing i want to bring up is turnkey housing. back in '73, '74, i served on a committee, honorable [speaker not understood] and burton and i brought up the suggestion of about homeless housing and also turnkey housing, people who are coming out of foster care, [speaker not understood] housing. out of the 540 acre that's in the shipyard, they're going to be developing all of that. i haven't heard since that time, me and mrs. vincent brought it up in the p-a-c meetings, what have you. we need to have housing for people in our community who have been in foster care and who

and i want to stress that, madam chair. i think it's critically important that we do a long-term surface transportation reauthorization to give predictability to our transportation program in this country. you can't plan transportation needs on a one year or two year basis. you have to have at least a five or six year reauthorization bill in order to do the types of modernizemodernize d transportation needs that we have in this country. as many of the members of the committee have already pointed out and as our panel will point out, this is about jobs. it will create jobs for our economy. not only the direct jobs related to the construction of our transportation needs, but also establishing the way in which we can attract the type of economic activities in our community that modern transportation provides. it's also important for livability. it took me about two hours coming in this morning from baltimore. that's not unusual. the traffic around baltimore and traffic around washington. every car we could get off the road int

. >> thank you madam chair and great to be back at government audit and oversight committee -- >> excuse me. can everyone clear the room quietly and have the conversations outside. thank you. >> thank you madam chair and i want to wish everyone in advance a happy valentine's day tomorrow so this is an item that i requested a hearing because i really believe it's important for us without pointing fingers to really understand the process by which contracts are entered into by various agencies. my own experience is that you can tell a lot how an agency is managed and the operations of that agency how they do contracts, and and we all know the board of supervisors has been working with the municipal transportation agency to shape its five year plan to replace vehicles in its aging fleet and we are grateful that there is a move to replace many of these vehicles. we want our system and our buses to be as reliable as they can be, and the reason that i called for this hearing is because as was reported by the sf weekly i do think there are questions that should be answered with respect to the pr

>> yes, thank you, madam chair. i have a number of questions about this. and first, in regard to the way in which this comes before this commission, each of us received a packet, with the information relating to this complaint which are going to go in a minute be considered adopted by us, at this meeting tonight, unless one of us asked for us to be pulled or to be calendared for discussion. i don't understand that procedure, and maybe someone can explain this to me. i see, a series of rather serious allegations against the high level official in the public utilities commission saying that she violated several aspects of conflict of interest, working at a paid commission at another job and lobbied the public utilities commission to give contracts that she worked for which would have aamounted to $250,000 that she would have been a beneficiary of that and i wind up agreeing with the stipulation and i have no problem with it and obviously underlying it, our staff must have done a fine job of working on it with the fppc. and in bringing about this stimulation.

>> madam chair, i would think that we as a commission would have the inherent right and power to publicize what we do and to write to other agency and to other governmental entities that might have an interest in what we do and tell them what we have found, and tell them what has occurred as a result of our actions. and i think that in that situation, if i were on the receiving end of that, that would be enough. and i don't think that we have to go any further than that. >> yeah. >> and we actually have been faced with a situation like that. and although, not an actual employee. but, a fellow commissioner on another commissioner, where we have recommended that some action be taken but we don't have the power to enforce that in any event. >> and maybe, i can ask the city attorney, this question. if we were to find, and i decided if not with this, the agregious conflict of interest by a city official, don't we have the power to determine if there is official misconduct justifying determination? >> i would have to check the specific language in the code and i am happy to do that and provide y

. >> madam chair? >> a couple of things that are articulated in here that i have further questions on, so she takes the training, so she is aware of the fact that something like this is a pretty obvious conflict of interest, what is the explanation for still not realizing that it was a violation and what was the expiration there so that we could be comfortable that it was not a deliberate attempt to violate it. >> and i think as it was stated earlier that she did not understand that this scenario was the same as what was described in the training. i don't believe that she understood the rule i do not believe that. >> anything further? >> those are my questions. >> thank you. are there comments from the audience? >> dr. derek kur a whistle blower and i would like to appreciate commissioner keane's comments and insights, i think that the problem is that the government officials create these ethics commission to serve government officials, and also then the public. there is a built-in bias and all of the

. >> thank you, madam chair. >> so, essentially, mr. st. croix and perhaps our representative from the city attorney's office, do you want to explain what we will be looking at? >> so, and i am going to defer to the city attorney in a moment. this is again, like last month sort of a unique situation it is not a process that we have gone through before. but this is not the same as last month. so, it will be necessary to go into closed session. the city attorney and the deputy city attorney will explain in a moment. so first we have should amotion to go into closed session and perhaps words from the city attorney and then a vote. >> do i here a motion? >> so moved that we go into private session. >> i will second. >> and any discussion? >> public comment? >> do you want me to comment before or after? >> yes, please. >> my view is that we it is necessary to go into closed session, the basically any question that, so just as a bit of back up, you know this was, these two settlements, the city attorney's office and sort of took the lead in negot

. >> thank you very much and welcome, madam chair. the market has made the point that we need to be operating in the core purposes as the federal reserve is pursuing an expansive monetary policy we are pursuing a very restrictive fiscal policy, and it would seem to me that if we were in harmony or complementary it would be better for the overall economy. there are several examples. the current debate, most objectives suggest that could add anywhere from 180,000 to 200,000 jobs in the economy into the same time helping people who need help. we are trying to find the healthcare systehealthcare systr which is another example of how the fiscal policy could aid the reference. can you comment on this purpose activity. >> there was a pose a substantial drag on spending in the u.s. economy over the last several years. the cbo estimated that last year the fiscal policy drag probably subtracted a percentage point and a half for growth. the drag is likely to listen to substantially during the current year but nevertheless it remains some drag an

murphy: thank you, madam chair. as a former small businessman, i am acutely aware of the strain unnecessary regulations have on business. while i strongly support the underlying goal of reducing the regulatory burden on american companies, truly smart regulatory reform would preserve government's ability to enforce clean air laws, food safety and consumer protections. it would not pile on duplicative procedural hurdles on already inefficient agencies. gumming up government bureaucracy and obstructing agencies' most basic functions. too often the bait up -- the debate up here about more or less regulations -- up here is about more or less regulations when we should be focused on smarter regulations. we should all be able to agree that government has a role to play in clean water for americans, an issue we're all too familiar with on the treasured coast. we should all be able to agree that when a consumer walks through the door of a bank, looking for a mortgage, that government has a role to play in protecting that co

supervisor kim, you are up. >> thank you madam chair. i do aul alenjoy this and i agree with snob nob how every day is black history month and we should celebrate the diversity in the community, but do a terrible job of [inaudible] for the work they do to make this country more democratic and [inaudible] commissioner [inaudible] who i work on putting together ethnic studies curriculum that we have in all the high schools. you can take it and it can be a class that helps you graduate. i didn't learn enough btd my history and it helps me get to the place i am today. [inaudible] the people that we are recognizes today [inaudible] it is important to acknowledge those folks. i am excited to add this name [inaudible] a group of folks in the african american community in san francisco and that is joe wilson. i'm glad you all sat down because if you know joe, there is a long history here. we go our community relies on the resources and care committed by the non profit providers many that go [inaudible] are recognized here today. for the tremendo

thank you, madam chair. >> thank you.i believe senator grassley is next. >> thank you, madam chairman. mr. hancock, following up on your previous testimony -- i talked previously about the roadblocks in construction raw checks, the red tape, which does things more costly, not create a meaningful jobs you're trying to create. can you talk about recommendations you might have to further accelerate project deliveries? >> there are a number of activities underway as we beat. -- underway as we speak. we are working very diligently to see one project forward. also, we have these strategic highway research programs that involve projects, give them time to get things done faster. many, many things on the horizon. we see the value of doing this and i promise you we will be sticking to our guns in that regard. >> does anyone want to respond to that, in terms of how we can get the money moving more quickly? >> full implementation of the reforms in map 21. committee, congress made great changes to the legislation in that bill. it is

. >> thank you, madam chair for being here. we have heard from the other side that the president's policy of not having any ill effect on the economy. yet chair yellen, we just recently have all seen a report from the cbo that the obamacare affordable care act is estimated to cause 2.5 million jobs over the next decade. do you believe regulation or overregulation has an impact on our economic growth and in job creation? >> chair yellen, i don't think your microphone is on. can you see if it is on? . closer. >> apologize. certainly regulation has an impact on the economy, on economic growth and there are many economic studies that have tried to document what it is. in the case of the affordable care act, cbo has done important analysis and probably will continue to look at it. the impact of the act is likely to be complex. they are still attempting to figure out what all the different channels are by which the economy, we will look at that and look at their assessment going forward. >> we had to pass it to find out what was in it