Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

Is in the committees but all tht are those committees, because if them. I think that members of tn who is leading the committees ag and the participation. I say ths participating somewhat in the aa committee. And some of these th, they get dormant depending upone work. So again, its a structurs going to be improvement within. If i may, i can have more inh the guidelines and also the posd the members of the committees s. Theres an email that came out. I appreciate that. And for mm the commission in this setting s of the officers and command forn terms of other levels of offices really no occasion, unless the r theres an occasion of interactp it gets to be greater. I call is and the chief as you visit evert tradition is something that we , because theres just no better s members, have dinner, have some, theres been a lot of changes ie members i had interaction are nf the new members have come in, un know who they are and i bet youm either, right . So what im sayit for me to have that kind of invr committees or affinity groups, s do in terms of participation wid again, the more we know, the beg coaching and basketball, i knowe black firefighters have their pr things that other groups do bute have, because then it engages te members are doing because priore department. But the other part y service, just to build rapport. E Succession Plan. And im glad t, because in my mind it sounds gos what part of the succession plau tell the officers then it becomn chiefs, captains, lieutenants, f this for myself is to be part or officers you got to have members who want to take tests and wanto advance themselves in the deparw membership thats coming in, i, because im concerned about gaps there a way to encourage membere tests, to think of promotions. N there where one has to get educs about becoming an officer. And s department, i met a lot of quale just members of the department,s of Succession Plan and ranks, ia reflection of the membership ad, 30s, to assistant batallion chin examination and employment but n employment as well to get in tht because were a department knowo see that continue as a diversity because that to me is a good sus makes sense, chief. Im just kis particular point but im tryings that we are looking at. So i gea Succession Plan. The last part k up from interviews. Myself, imf that many of our veteran firefie starting to retire. And i thinkn as to our workforce. But i thinn as to how young our workforce if experience within the department kind of information that in thee retirement hits a certain pointo is coming in. When mayor lee was department we had as much as klo different fiscals on a sixyearn to two classes, i believe. One. Okay. One a year. One a year. So just that alon terms of succession, in terms oe department, that workforce withe training and ability of experied again, im glad you are doing t. Okay. Thats my little spielt stimulate myself. Sorry, chief. No, no, i agree with your po. All right. Im done. Commisss point . No. Thank you very much, chief. Madame secretary. Item 5, commission report. Ry since last meeting on september. Commissioners, ill call fors item. Commissioners is there ane commissioners in terms of this. Just a point of information, cor grand jury report was accepted. T with you. With our recommendatit to acknowledge the command forct us and the director and the com . Item 6, agenda for next and n meetings. Commissioners. I think we have next meeting. Right. We have a brief presentationt meeting we have a closed sessioe evaluation. Right. Other than that, theres the. And again as a point of informay from christmas, meaning that no, november 13th. And one meeting o according to our agenda, i juste that this month of october woulf occasion if we want to get a mae latter part of the year. Just a, commissioners. Madame secretaryc comment on that . Yes. May i have Public Comment ong none, Public Comment is closed. Item 7, adjournment. I need a motion. So moved. Vice president covington. Thank you very much. [role call] we are all here. This is the first time that we are meeting as a full fivemember commission. This is a watershed moment. Agenda item number two, Public Comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda. No Public Comment, we will go on to agenda item number three. Draft minutes for the august 16, 2019 regular meeting. Can i get a motion to approve . So moved. The minutes are unanimously approved. General item number four, im sorry we didnt do Public Comment on that. Call for Public Comment on agenda item number three. There is none. Agenda item number four, discussion of multi staff and enforcement report, including a briefing by the department of Human Resources staff on outside employment of city and county employees and an update on various programmatic and operational highlights of the enforcement programs activities since the last monday meeting. Thank you. The first subset of this enforcement report is a response to a request that the commission made at the june meeting. He will remember at that that the enforcement report had presented to use information about a meeting that the department of Human Resources, Client Services team had held to discuss with our consultants, how the city and county handles secondary employment. I attended that meeting by invitation. My capacity of the director of enforcement alongside the chair of the whistleblower program. The lead attorney at the time i presented that information to you, i got a lot of questions. We got a lot of questions from the commission. He did his best to feel those questions. You will remember that he process basically every one of his responses with well, i dont want to speak on behalf of the department of Human Resources. At the conclusion of that discussion, commissioner lee requested that the department of Human Resources speak on behalf of the department of Human Resources. Very kindly, to members of the department have come to address your questions today. They will begin with a brief presentation. I think they have some sense already, of the kinds of questions that arose in that previous conversation. They will welcome additional questions. The two members are hannah and shawn. Hannah is the Deputy Director of employment services. She oversees the Public Safety examination team. Their selection and hiring resources team, which consists of citywide recruitments on testing, centralized operations. She does the hiring Modernization Project team. Finally, the Client Services Consulting Team which is seans team. Sean, again is the Client Services consulting manager. He oversees dhrs Client Services team which consist of supervisory and seniorlevel professionals who provide fullservice hr support for more than 20 departments of the city and county. That includes the ethics division. The services are provided as well, to more than 1600 employees. He also provides consultative hr support to 40 additional city departments. His role includes administering the citys request for additional employment, which is the subject of todays conversation. I will handed over to him. Thank you. Good afternoon commissioners. Sean with the department of Human Resources. Thank you, jeff, for that introduction. And i was actually taking notes, said you do all of that. I expect we will be in discussions on the walk back as well. The commission is providing you with an opportunity to give a general overview of the additional employment request process. Referring to it as secondary employment as well. Campaigning Government Finance code, the Civil Service rules i will speak to the process that governs employees having outside employment from the city. The other thing, because the presentation is very quick, very much a highlevel overview, i would be happy to take any questions that the commissioners may have. The director of the department of Human Resources, Nikki Callahan works through me to administer this program. The rules section and all four volumes of the Civil Service rules are the conflict of interest provision, and it speaks to a form that the director of the department of Human Resources provides for any employees who are seeking outsider secondary employment. We put that form out, and we update it regularly. Where in the process of updating it, at this moment, as well in consultation with Ethics Commission and the City Attorneys Office and the whistleblowers department. I believe the commissioners have hardcopies as well. Im going to go ahead and proceed. We do not have hardcopies, no. Again again, from a highlevel level overview. The things that the department sees and plays work for, that the then checks for her to really make sure that the additional employment does not interfere with the performance of their regular job. This is any employee, does it matter if theyre temporary, permanent, exempt, it is any employee of the city. We want to make sure that that doesnt impede their performance. An example of which is, a firefighter working outside maybe has another job somewhere else. I want to make sure when they come to work one that they are available, maybe their oncall. But also that they have adequate sleep before shift as well. The other thing is we want to make sure that the outside employment or additional employment isnt inconsistent, incompatible or conflict with their current duties. This is where we really work in partnership with the Ethics Commission in many cases we are advising departments to get an advanced determined written written determination where they would seek their own department and Department Head, if its a deputy, or commissioners, we advise that department to work in partnership with the Ethics Commission. That really is probably the one that is of most interest to the commissioners. We want to make sure that we are not approving employment that has any conflict with the persons responsibilities. Whether thats procurements, whether that is contracting. Those are really the big ticket items that we are concerned about how we work with the departments to make sure they are fully vetted. We also want to make sure that the additional employment is not contrary to the interest of the city. And would not lead the city in a repute. We would not want to approve employment, necessarily have a great example, and i dont want to be put on record for that. Things that would involve moral turpitude are things we would not approve. The other thing, and this has really come out of years of us reviewing these is wanting to make sure that the outside employment doesnt impede or affect the employee, this case the City Employees regular work schedule. I highlighted an example yet earlier where we would not want a firefighter, or somebody that works in a safety sensitive job to have worked all night on a grave shift and then come in i work a regular city shift. We have a strong belief that that would impede their ability to perform the functions of their job. The other thing that has come up that we are working actively with departments on is, it would be in conflict if an employee was going to take vacation, or in worst Case Scenario take sick leave and then work outside employment. Those are things we are working primarily with with apartments on, but also with the City Attorneys Office. The Whistleblowers Office will get complaints that somebody is working an outside job that somebody called in sick and i saw them driving an two uber vehicle. That may be an example that comes up. Those are the primary factors we are looking at. We are not really in the business of approving outside improvement retroactively. These things should be prospective. Employees need to get all of the approvals and acknowledgments from an outside employer that this is a City Employee and their work must be secondary to the citys employment. There schedule again, that we have an understanding of that, this comes up like i said before with the firefighters wanting to make sure theres adequate time before shifts. We are also interested in the amount of compensation. Not that that is a black and blackandwhite factor in this, but it drives further conversation. If we see somebody is getting a significant amount of compensation for consultative services, it is going to require us, and the department, to look a little bit deeper. What is it exactly you are consulting on. What are your services . Who are your clients . What are the hours that you are working . Is any of that were going to take place during city time . That would not be allowed. And then lastly, it seems sort of obvious, but that we give the appointing officer, or appropriate designee for the department to approve these. Director callahan and i, are the only one that approve them for the department of Human Resources. We the department are also reviewing these at each department. Believe it or not, that sometimes has been a challenge. As things come up either through the Ethics Commission, or a whistleblower complaint, i think it is in everyones interest that an appropriate Department Head or designee is the one that is reviewing these. And then, im not going to go through this too much, partly because it is pretty straightforward, but also because we are updating it. We can get a flavor for what the questions are on the forms that have been developed by dhr. We require all of this information to be completed. It becomes a Public Document for the Ethics Commission if they want to look at it for the Whistleblowers Office, they regularly contact us on the City Attorneys Office Investigative Unit as well. And then, the acknowledgment which is just the bottom half of the form are what an outside employer would sign, section 2. They have to acknowledge the compatibility of the outside employment with the employees current city employment. The officer must sign, and the last piece director callahan were her designees there was another slide. Im not sure what happened to it . It was all of the resources that we provide to departments, links to the applicable Civil Service rules, the memorandum of the governments additional employment, the form itself, to the Ethics Commission staff who can help departments and advise them what the right path of what an advanced written determination. To the statement of incompatible activities. We also partner with each departments assigned deputy city attorney. There are questions that sometimes come up that need and require the City Attorneys Office to be involved and then obviously all of the consultants on my team are a little mini experts on this process as well. Miraculously, there they are. That is my brief presentation. I think there are questions that maybe i can answer. I will look at hannah if i cannot answer them. Actually, i have couple of questions and then i invite my fellow commissioners to also ask questions. Just broadly, you know, with the advent of the economy, and the sharing with lyft and uber becoming options for people. Have you seen an uptick in the number of requests for advanced written approval for the secondary employment . Second, as a followup question. What if someone does not receive advanced written approval and they are identified because they called in sick, and someone saw them driving for uber, what happens then . Right. The first question, yes we have seen an uptick with the economy, the uber, the lyft, if someone is actually running a business with an airbnb and they are conducting it, theyre not having somebody else do it, those are all things that would require additional employment approval. I have seen quite a number of those over the last 23 years. We continue to reach out to departments, and by extension to their employees to remind them of this obligation. We are starting to embed this in our onboarding processes and our annual updates about the time people are receiving performance evaluations. They might be reminded about a number of policies. This is one that we are actively reminding employees that they need to complete. Part of the updates that we are making to the form are to make it quite clear that Something Like working in the big economy, may be an independent contractor, contractor that requires you to complete the additional employment request form. The other question can you repeat it again real quick . What happens if an employee does not receive the advanced determine employment employment determination . Is he identified as someone who may be driving door dash mac or something. The department is advised that they have an employee that is not in compliance with the Civil Service rules. A lot of times it is the Whistleblowers Office that is advising them. For example if you looked at the whistleblowers Quarterly Report log you will notice, one of the biggest things that they are advising on, is that they received an anonymous complaint that somebody, like you said, is working outside employment. They send them out to the Apartment Department and the department is obligated to bring the employee into compliance. That could mean ending the outside employment, or, securing an agreement through this process. The City Attorneys Office is also working with departments where lets say it is repeated. We would argue that the employee knew that they needed to complete the additional employment request form and neglected to do so. The government code would require the department and the officer to take correction corrective action in the coming disciplinary action. How often is approval denied, approximately . How often does somebody get caught without approval disobeying that and going ahead . My response is going to be a little bit anecdotal. You dont keep date of that . We look at the process, somewhat an interactive process. If in the request of the Department Finds because it goes to the department first. Sometimes a and then comes over to the department of Human Resources. We then work to clarify the expectations. It might not be a denial straight out, but we need to get additional information. We need to get an advanced written determination. I can think of calendar year 2019, maybe 23 that got to my desk or mickeys desk that we found to be in conflict either with the employee schedule. In conflict with statement of incompatible activities. We advise the department that they need to, in some cases, issue a notice to the employee that they cannot perform that secondary employment, or in other cases, they need to find a way to remedy that. Very small number get to my desk which could be, and im hoping is because we have done a lot of outreach training and worked with our departmental hr colleagues to make them aware, and employees, what we are looking for. The other question about how many do we find . I think the best way to answer that, i get about 23 requests per week, from the Whistleblowers Office, from the city, asking if an employee has additional employment request documents on file. I dont know if that means are working or not working. Very rarely do i actually have documents on file. When i look at the Quarterly Reports that the Whistleblowers Office issues with the complaints they received, and how they have been resolved. There is a noticeable number of requests each quarter, probably about a dozen where they find an employee does not have approval for outside employment. They go back and work through the appointing officer, and that departments hr team to rectify them. Thank you. Can you go further into how you define conflict of interest as well as incomparable activities. For instance, if somebody is working as data entry assistant, and he or she is seeking approval for outside employment in a permit processing company, as, i dont know, so does not apply to the conflict of interest . Even though that person is not specifically working on permit processing . But the person is working within city planning which approves all of these permits and other requests. Primarily, we primarily rely on our departmental colleagues. If it was the department of building and six inspection of the Planning Commission to have their own statement of incompatible activities. That would be incumbent on their hr team and their appointing officer to review that. If we see that that review was not undertaken, and maybe its an advanced written determination. We will call into question what the Department Review process was. I think if work is similar, but it doesnt involve any of the same clients, it doesnt affect our schedule. Those things are not going to be found incompatible. A more clear and present example is we have a lot of physicians, nurses, social workers, in Public Health, that also have practices outside of the city. Maybe they meet with clients on the weekend. One of the things we have worked with the department of Public Health on his having the employees, when they are submitting their additional request forms also complete a non conflict addendum to it, that none of my clients are going to be, or ever will be department of Public Health clients. Anyone that i see in my private practice will never be a department of Public Health client, as well. That is one of the ways that we see departments resolve situations like this. I know for higherlevel department or for deputies, managers, a lot of times we will go back to a department and require they work with employee to get a list of clients, potential vendors, and anyone they may work with and make sure none of those vendors also touch the city as well. If we do find that there is some nexus, or overlap, particularly working with the department, maybe we say in advance determine written read determination is needed. We might also bring in our colleagues at the City Attorneys Office, the labor team as well to advise on how either we can bring this into compliance, or something that we could approve, or whether we need outright disallow it and advise employee they cannot pursue that outside employment. You talk about outside employment. What happens if it is an outside business so the employee actually either operates his or her own Small Business or, is working in a family run business do these rules still apply to them . You have separate rules because they own their own business . It is the exact same set of rules. It is broad and encompassing. We require anyone, they receive any benefit, any compensation, whether it is from their own business, another business, from independent contracting role, it would be required and are required to go through this additional employment approval process. We do get i want to add an adjective to it we do receive a request for employees that have their own business. One of the things that we work with departments on is making sure that that business is not conducting business as well for the city, the other thing we look at, a lot of times if you own your business, the operation of the business might be a 247 24 seven, or a business that is open during normal city hours. We want to make sure it is not the for the daytoday operations. One more followup. Im looking at the front end part of this. In perspective, job applicants applying for city service. Do you ask them whether they are currently owning a business . Not that that should be a deterrent, but just for your information whether they have already ran a business. Owning a business outside of the city and applying for a job within the city . That is not really something we would ask or be able to ask at that point was in the process. At the beginning of employment, like i was saying earlier, the onboarding process avails employees through the employee handbook, and through the onboarding process whether you knew or not, the city has a request for additional employment. If you have outside employment, you must complete this now, or in the future if you do have outside employment. Its at the point that we are bringing somebody on all or Something Like that would come up, and not at the application stage, not at the interview stage. It would necessarily be appropriate and im not convinced it would be legal either. Anyone that applies for a job, they submit a resume, and resume would say i am the owner of such and such. That may be a conflict of interest. Since people do not submit resumes when they apply for city employment. I think the assumption, most people have jobs before they come to the city. The assumption is that they will stop employment at that other entity. Not if they own the business though. At that point that it does become a conflict, at the point. Dot employment is beginning we would have that discussion. We would give the, sent to them before they begin employment, at the time they are making a decision as to whether or not accept a job offer. Those kind of things would be made clear. There might be an opportunity to make it clearer in that example. He would not make an employment decision, oh, you own a business were not going to hire you. I dont mean that. We want to be very careful the message that we are conveying. Its after an employment decision has been made that we would look into, are there any conflicts . If there are, how do we address those . Most instances there would not be a conflict. Those are the things that we would get into a discussion with an employee who has. Thinking. She promised me she was just going to sit there. Good afternoon, commissioners. I just wanted to, echo what sean said, we normally tackle it at the employment stage. However if it is on their application, usually during what we call the post selection post referral Selection Process which is really the fit interview with candidates fifth interview with candidates. They see the resumes, they see the applications and they are allowed to ask followup questions, and sometimes, i see you currently own this business, you still do, et cetera, as followup questions. We do not prohibit them from asking if it is on their application. Like shawn said, its not a factor that we put in place in order to make an employment determination. 1020 thank you. I have a clarifying question. In order to trigger this provision, the City Employee needs to be receiving a salary or a wage and not have an ownership interest. Say they are a shareholder they receive a dividend but theyre not involved in the daytoday running of the business. In that scenario with this advanced written determination be required . I would like to my Ethics Commissions colleagues i believe that is a form 700 issue. Theyre not conducting business to then receive some sort of compensation benefit, or it sounds like in the example you are provided they are investing. We would apply the same principle to somebody who was running an airbnb or renting a house as far as the additional employment provisions. If theyve given it to a property manager to run the airbnb and they have no daytoday activities involved in it, the property manager is meeting the tenants coming into the house, providing access, providing cleaning services, if the owner of the business is not conducting the work involved in it, it would not fall under this this is something we have worked extensively with the City Attorneys Office on in terms of getting an interpretation when the supplies and when it doesnt apply. This is how we got to where we were at with the gig economy. Lyft and uber are actively conducting work. It is a little grayer there is a black situation with Something Like airbnb. If you are actively participating in the business, and conducting the business then you would be required to complete this process. Thank you. I just wanted to ask about the statement of incompatible activity. Every department in the city required to reflect upon the work that they do, their employees, and what they think is appropriate . My understanding, i think is that the department has a lot of discretion and can also include with the statement of incompatible activities of the prohibition of activities that would give an appearance of a conflict even if not a conflict. I was reflecting on the example that you gave, someone who works for the Planning Department while they might be an administrative and clerical and not in a decisionmaking role with respect to permits, i dont know if they do or not, but am i correct in assuming if the planning director wanted to there could be a statement of incompatible activities, that anyone who is employed by the Planning Department cannot work for a permit expediter . Or, does this set of criteria that you identified here conflict time interference, et cetera, the only governing protocol is for whether you can or you cant . I think youre point is well taken. The statement of incompatible activities is one way that they determine whether there is a conflict. Like you said it could be appearance, i will give an example. We could have somebody at a high level decisionmaking position in a department and they have knowledge and expertise and they want to help design, lets say a Testing Process for another municipality, or even for the city and county of francisco the Department Head would not want that highlevel deputy, or maybe anyone in that department, because it would give the appearance of potential favoritism or even if it wasnt favoritism, somebody could claim , i know this manager worked on this process, and or its consulting or providing information. I did not work with them, and i did not play favor with him. Therefore, that is why i did not get the position or the promotion. We have seen instances where a Department Head, or appointing authority has made decisions not to allow outside employment. One way is the statement of incompatible activities. It could be the appearance, it could be time off between shifts. Theres a lot of things that the statement of incompatible activities will not speak to that we would give broad latitude to an appointing officer. One important caveat, our labor partners actually have language in there mou, that work the other way around, which explicitly gives a right to an employee to have additional employment unless the city finds there is a conflict or a potential issue. As far as i know the only union that has a provision. Interesting. One last question, is there an appeal. If mickey callahan, and or the Department Head gave a thumbs down, is there any step beyond that . Every decision, almost every decision of the Human Resource director can be appealed to the Civil Service commission. There is a provision in the rules that says any decision of the Human Resource director can be appealed to the commission. We have not seen that. I havent actually experienced an appeal in this process. In most instances when there are questions or concerns that we are able to work backwards through the department and adequately provide the employee would notice and reason for why we cannot support this. We have not seen circumstances for a decision of either the department, or the director has been appealed. When you give someone notice they have been denied, what form of notice is it . Is it an email or letter . We go back through the appointing officer, at the department, usually through their Human Resources team. Most departments will have their own h. R. Team and we will advise them. Maybe this is something you did not consider, maybe you can remedy that. If you cannot, the example i highlighted earlier, a highlevel deputy or Department Head participating in consultation to help potential candidates for a job, that was never going to be compatible. That department and issued a notice in some cases with advice from the City Attorneys Office and the department of Human Resources, in the form of a letter saying, here is the reasons why we will not be approving your additional employment request. If they are not doing it would be subject to the charter of potential discipline. How long do they have to appeal . I know you havent seen it, but im hearing, from the audience, five days. I believe that to be true. From the point they receive the email, or the notice, or a carrier pigeon dropping it off, whatever that to appeal to the Civil Service commission. Business days . Five business days. Otherwise, i would issue it right before three day weekend. [laughter] there are Different Levels of employees im sorry can you speak into the microphone . There are various levels of employment. There are ones that have responsibilities whether it is finance, programs, or what have you. When the supervisor or the approving officer reviewed these requests, do they look at the actual level of responsibilities of these employees when they look at the conflict of interest rules, and other rules . Because, you know, the folks are at lower pay grades, their request for outside employment may be very different from people at the senior level, of employment. You mentioned about the flexibility, but it seems like there needs to be different ways of looking at the activities as well as a conflict issue. I think i have an answer that will massage some of those concerns. We look at all requests and work backwards through departments to make sure they are thoroughly vetted. When it comes to managers, supervisors, we apply the same standard that we are seeing for the folks that are required to fill out form seven hundreds when we make a policymaking decision. Every manager request i review with director callahan, to make sure that we are aware of what a department is approving. There are times when she calls her Department Head colleague and has a discussion with them about their employees outside requests. It might involve, as we were discussing earlier, simply the appearance of potential conflict are you aware, Department Head, if you approve this it may not be in conflict with their job, but it could give the appearance area i do work with her on all management level. This is midlevel management all the way up to make sure that those requests are consistently reviewed across that spectrum. Thank you. Thank you very much, sean. Call for Public Comment. There is none. Jeff . Thank you, sean, thank you hannah. This is very, very helpful and informative. Would like to add my thanks to sean and hannah as well. I do hope that Going Forward your office, and our office, can collaborate on both some of the heart of questions identified in terms of really honing in on where there may be some incompatibility, and looking for ways to improve enforcement opportunities where we do discover some of those instances in which somebody had unapproved outside employment, or maybe even engaged in conduct for which they had sought approval and that approval had been denied. I actually have another question for sean, if i may. With the recent passage of the new law that is going into effect the employees of lyft and uber in the gig economy it would now be required to be classified as employees. What impact do you see that having on this process if any . It shouldnt have any change, we would already require them to complete this process. If anything else, it might bring more light to this program that it becomes clearer to employees that they are employed by two different companies. Right. If you become an employee, would dictating schedules and hours. That might change how employees are doing that now, if they are working for lyft or uber. They can set their own hours. So the hours would not conflict with their current city employment. If an employer was setting hours that would conflict. That would be difficult. Thank you. I would like to make a correction to a statement that i whisper to sean earlier. The appeal timeframe for other matters, because i just realized additional employment is not specific in the Civil Service rules with regard to appeals. The Civil Service rule 105. 12. 4, allows someone to appeal the Human Resources directors decision on other matters for 30 days. Okay. Not just five business days, but 30 calendar days. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. I will keep the remainder of my presents present item on agenda item number for quite brief. A reminder for current docket adding together all of the matters, those in preliminary review, and those that are under investigation, you will have seen only about one third of them are under preliminary review, about two thirds are under investigation. Our aim, of course, is to devote more resources to investigations, and triage so that we stem prosecutorial resources in the most effective way possible. We certainly have more work to do on that front. We still have 47 matters that require a decision, about our jurisdiction, or about our extending those resources. We have more work to do bringing down the amount of time that it takes for us to make a decision. If you look at attachment one, at the top of page 4, you will see among those matters still in preliminary review, about half of them, the commission received within the timeframe between today, and three months ago. And then scattering of matters across the next 15 months for which we still have a determination to make. It could be a matter that is older in preliminary review, it is again being held through the policies. That follows a strange process where it sort of it remains limbo of preliminary review, until it is fully resolved. It never actually gets in the usual sense off of their preliminary review docket. I know its agenda item five that that is something the Enforcement Division is reconsidering. It may be that other matters, still under preliminary review that are older have entailed more complex preliminary investigation, or they require additional layers of review among staff to resolve. The last thing that i will note. As to the 91 matters, under investigation, which is a number that is remaining roughly constant. We have been up around 90 for quite some time. The division intends to take a mini staff retreat, late next week to begin to apply the discretionary factors that we discussed with you, a month ago, during the august meeting. The question arose at that time, whether they could be applying those factors, not only prospectively to complaints that come in, but complaints that are already on the investigative docket. Commission expressed an opinion that we should close out by applying discretionary factors. Any matters for which we think the expenditure of Additional Resources doesnt make sense. We will spend time, as a team reviewing the incident existing investigative docket with that purpose in mind and we will of course work through the process that the regulations require which is to write to closure reports and obtain the approval of the executive director. And then provide for your review, a summary of each of those matters, so you can exercise your oversight of the divisions enforcement efforts and provide to us any feedback about whether you think we are applying those factors in the way you helped. The way you had hoped. Any questions from commissioners . Okay. Call for Public Comment on agenda item number four . No Public Comment. Agenda item number five, discussion of possible action on preliminary outline for revisions of commissions fixed penalty policy. Thank you. Item five, again is in response to request from the commission at our last meeting, commissioners requested that we come back to you, at subsequent meetings with a proposal about how we would implement one subset of efforts that the Enforcement Division is undertaking in this period of review as we examine whether the practices of the division are truly as efficient and is effective as they might be. So, just mentioned the staff retreat that the Enforcement Division will take next week to apply the discretionary factors to that is one subset. The main project at the division will undertake, in the coming months with the blessing of the commission is to extend the fixed penalty policy that the Commission Adopted in a Public Meeting in july of 2013. The request that you made was that we think about what that process might look like. What we brought to you on agenda item number five, is some background on the existing policy for the benefit of any commissioners who are less familiar with it, but also for the benefit of the public. So, we have detailed in some degree how that policy operates. We have noted that one goal of the policy is to handle in an accelerated fashion fashion those matters that require little to no investigation and that might be suitable to resolve through at a schedule of penalties. The drafters of the policy believed would bring to the regulated community increased transparency and increase predictability. Our view, and i believe the Commission View is that we have an opportunity, at this. Because to review that policy in both its substantive and procedural aspects. Of course what we envision undertaking is a process to contemplate what additional kinds of violations the Enforcement Division can handle in a streamlined way. Procedurally we intend to reevaluate the factors, mitigating and aggravating factors that apply in a given instance, including whether there are factors of aggravation that would prevent a respondent from participating in the streamlined process and benefiting from the schedule of penalties. We would, of course, want to