Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240712

Allegations of corruption, and indictments and guilty pleas swirling around city Hall Contracting the city family is plugging along with another enormous bond for this november, much of it which will go to d. P. W. The ethics budget is not an expense. Its an investment that pays dividends and in cost savings and honest government. Thank you very much. If you are joining by the webex Browser Extension, if you wish to raise your hand for this Public Comment and other Public Comments, you may do so by clicking on the raise hand icon. Its located in the participants panel on the lowerright corner. To access that panel, you can click on the navigation bar located in the video screen by clicking on the participants icon. I do not see any additional callers concerning Public Comment. Im going to close Public Comment first, i want to say in response to the Public Comment, to the first specificker who had substantive points of information concerning City Contracting i do hope that the whistleblower and the Contact Number for the Controller Office is available to that individual so that information can be presented to the Controllers Office who is looking at those specific contracts. Second with respect to the second call fer we decide here today to it should be public as part of the boards records. I mean, ive been able to navigate the boards website to find letters to the board and just to be clear, we will post it on our own website so you will be able to find it and im trying to think if director pelham knows where that might be found. You can let us know if we decide to send a letter. And then, its good to hear you are an active participant that i am familiar with. With that im going to recognize commissioner lee, whose hand is up, if she intends it to be up and commissioner lee are you ready . I want to make a motion to have the board send a letter, the Commission Send a letter to be signed by you chair to sign the points you had made and in addition to add the recommendation the board consider designated certain parts of the money specifically the permit fees and other areas that have a direct connection to the work of the Ethics Commission. I think you are on mute. Im going to unmute myself and recognize commissioner chiu. If you want to speak, you have the floor. I would like to amend the resolution with commissioner bushs suggestion that we highlight the amount of the cost to San Francisco of corruption and the millions of dollars and compare that to the budget request the commission is making to really make the contrast clear and its worth pounds of pounds of cure. I am going to recognize commissioner bush. If you want to unmute your mic. Commissioner bush, you are still muted. Am i unmuted now . You are. Ill get it right one of these days. I just think we need to also visit the question of under what circumstances we can solicit outside contribution to our work. We looked at the coalition that completed major work and it was supported by groups like the California Press foundation, the craig newmart philanthropy, the first look media, there are options that are out there to the ethics work so i dont know if there should be or a sign off saying i would like to reach off to these following groups and do i have permission to do that and maybe andrew shin has thoughts on how to proceed on Something Like that. Also, sending and so fourth and if you could circulate that a number of that and before it goes and that would be great. Im going to ask you to hold and well take up the issue about outside Funding Sources and one of the things that while were finishing with the so everybody understands how the city works in terms of the intake of a nonprofit and back to the motion on the letter, this is one of the i was struggling with, if we can, only two commissioners can communicate outside. I dont want to, since we dont have time to meet again for everyone to comment on the letter, i want to be really clear in the motion and the delegation, if you want to review and comment on the letter. The two of us can go back and fourth in that regard and work with the executive director. We wont be able to share it with all five commissioners and be commenting back and fourth without violating the brown act and i want to make sure that in the motion im happy to post. I mean the letter to not ive not done this before with the commission where and i i understand about making the point that commissioner i can go back and replicate those. With respect to the permit fees, commissioner lee, i do have a question we could the board can take whatever permit fees and have them in a fund and have them deemed appropriate for the Ethics Commission but that 90,000 or whatever amount it was, it isnt going to i mean, if they just substitute in that money that would otherwise go into the general fund money, theres no net benefit to the Ethics Commission. What we really want, and i think we ought to focus on for purpose of the letter is saying, that at this critical time, we need to have the Ethics Commission fully funded and be allowed to take on the requirement that we have and not been able to achieve because of the levels of funding in the past as well as this new initiative to address culture. We can work ourselves to come back at a separate time to say that we want special funds created for our permit fees. Unless im missing something and theres a lot more money to be found in that source. Im just afraid, theyre capable of saying you can have your permit fees and thats where you are supposed to get your additional funding and that wont do it for us. Thats not going to solve our problem, right. Can i Say Something . I was going to recognize director pelham if she has any thoughts about how much money were talking about in that realm. I want to give commissioner lee the chance to explain, educate me further about what we might be able to do in that realm. So if you dont mind, commissioner bush, im going to go to director pelham or lee about thinking about how they would have the resources to think about creative Funding Source and do the leg work to think about where might there be other fee source thats could fund operations. In essence, the commission is looking back at the original proposal from february 21st. We talked about it at the top and having a level of resource thats can do the financial critical budget work thats necessary that we currently do not have inhouse. So, i think when we can look to those levels of funding to get that specificity to letter to the board and we have those examples. If that isnt sufficient we can work to try to identify more specificity. Were certainly looking at a minimum at what we requested in february in my judgment. And i guess, i mean, one of the things just in acknowledging the point, if we had the additional enforcement capability, its conceivable that our permit fee might be a more significant source. Its something we can reference to the board. The importance of everyone in government right now to be both ways we can identify sources of funds that will make up for the lack of tax revenue that we know sim pacting the general fund right now. You are raising your hand again, director pelham. I do understand from staff who were here back in the days before i was, that there was times where the city, other city departments actually provided funding for the eth i guess commission to hire training staff. We can do some further research on that and see if those might be models that we should be suggesting as well and obviously all Department Fees need to hold on to their resources but there could be places where they might be partnerships available for a defined period of time and top undertake department training. I think we can add that to the list of Grant Funding and permit source funding and probably it would actually i know that in some of the hearings on the corruption of public works, that was one of the first sort of corrective measures that was identified was to bring in the contracting staff there and this is an important point. Theres a good chance, i guess, at least in my mind, that the board is going to be receptive to this and the mayor. I want to make sure that we can deliver if the Funding Sources, you know, become available and one of the challenges is that this vacant position problem that you have had for at least for the duration that ive been on the commission. It seems, you know, either through transfers to other City Apartments or people moving on with their life and certainly under this pandemic the pressure on families and individuals. I want to be i want a request that you keep us apprised and you are sort of clear and honest with yourself too about whether or not were going to be able to do this. We have to be able toll fill positions and if we get that budget authorization, there is no coming back at the end of this fiscal year in saying well, thank you for the money but we really couldnt quite get it together and we need to step up. So keep us a surprise apprised. One of the issues that the controllers recommendations raised is exactly that point. In order for the commission to do the work before us with the controllerrers recommendations, the legislative recommendations and the work we know we have to do to fill those positions it cant be just the money, it has to be an expedited hiring process. Think about the framework were looking at. October 1st is when the new budget will be finalized. Positions wont be authorized and funded for any department until october 1st. Theres tha a hiring process and were able to have funding. That is at best, 150 days, 130day process and its taken six months and seven months in the past to fill positions we know there are its possible to conceive of a world where there are expedited hiring procedures in place they are when the city takes what they call a little itsed Term Position or permanent exempt position to be like a threeyear limited term role and that means you have maybe not all the same sorts of requirements for the Civil Service exambased testing process, which does take that time. I guess my point is simply that to yours, if we were to be in a position to have these positions or new resources, the only way its going to be effective in any expedited manner is to also have an expedited hiring process and its something that i think has been elevated, its on peoples minds, to question if this is something that is possible. We know that that would be required. You are right, if were starting in october, the bestcase scenario under an expedited hiring process with greatest flexibility is four months. Throw tthree to four months, and bringing people on board and training. Were looking at the end of this coming fiscal year. In terms of managing what we think is possible, i think what is incumbent on us is to identify the sequencing of bestcase scenario, here is what we can deliver over the following time horizon because we know that even when theres not a pandemic the bestcase scenario for hiring can be challenging so we would have to look at ways to alleviate some of that so we can get people in the chairs and get the work started. I do see some hands. I did want to say, i want to give other people a chance to talk. I want to come back to you i hear all that. I do think it needs to be reflected in the letter. I think that its important to say to the board in order to address corruption thats been identified and prevent it from happening in the future, were already i agree, the fact that and they are staffed away in some filing cabinet in each one of the respective departments, its not the kind of sunshine we need right now as we build our culture of ethical behavior and i want you to be prepared to speak to exactly what position, what funding is necessary in order to get that up and rolling by the time the next filing deadline comes up which would be april of 2021. So, if you are going to im going to start back alphabet tickly and recognize commissioner chiu. You have the floor if you want to unmute your mic. Thank you, chair ambrose. I have thro three point to make. There are many topics that we can cover in the letter but that the in the absence of having fully vetted research and being comfortable that these are avenues that would be viable for the Ethics Commission. To your point earlier, they could you can use your lobbying expenses and then just wash their hands of it. Two other points i wanted to make were, whether or not if you are consideration as you work through this with the director is tying our budget requests to the recommendations in the controllers report saying the controllers, preliminary report has identified a, b and c and this ties directly back to the budget a asset we made in februy of 2020. Not only by not funding the budget request from the Ethics Commission, it would also be not funding or pursuing the recommendations made by the controller after its investigation. And second, it would be whether or not i dont know enough about the city budgeting process but since d. P. W. Is the bad apple here, in terms of the acting, can parts of their budget be redirected to fund the Ethics Commission around the training, around the policy and legal and regulatory review. Since they have kind of blown everything up and that they have a budget as well and that they can help fund some of the remedial work. Its a question, i dont have the answers to it but its i do remember from the mayors meeting that it was floated. You are sure about the mayors meeting . At the mayors meeting, the mayor or someone had suggested or had proposed that in the past, the departments that the departments part of the Department Budget or im not clear on all of the budgeting inns and outs but the gist that i took away from it was that is it possible for d. P. W. Budget to fund to have some of their funds allocated to the Ethics Commission to finance the specific education outreach and regulatory and legal review that are identified as a result of this corruption scandal. Im going to director pelham, if you want to speak to that. I mean, i think those are all first of all, your main points, the message should be focused. I will definitely attempt to draft this reflect the controllers recommendation and how it ties into the february 20212020 original budget submittal. I think the points that you are making about alternative sources along with the points that commissioner lee made, and the points made is that we should work on to get a satisfied for oversight and i think its worthy of further investigation and discussion. Its something that is not really on the agenda right here so we should put that on for further review just maybe all of these topics. Grant funding, nonprofit funding, permit set aside funding and set aside work orders funding from other departments and i think maybe even august would be a good time for at least for the commissioners to think about and bring back further ideas along those lines and im not going to expect staff to have identified and we can put it on so we can have more flushing out of the opportunities and what would be required at the city level and i see that macali practicalities i will recognize our deputy City Attorney if you want to unmute your mic. Let me be very brief. So, speaking to what you just raised, chair ambrose, yes, there are ways city departments could receive money from grants and such and those would be subject to board approval as well as other contracting would ned to address and in terms of the letter and obviously only two or fewer members of the commission could review the letter or draft the letter and it couldnt involve more than a quorum in the drafting process. In the past, the commission has trusted whoever was delegated without Authority Just to leave you with his or her own. So thats something to keep in mind. Just very briefly lastly, the budget is before the commission at this point. So i dont know if the Commission Also wants to formally approve the budget as proposed. And as part of its final action on this matter. Although i do understand it sounds like the Commission Approved under protest or some sort of obligation. Thank you for deputy City Attorney. Well come back to the motion that is standing on the floor with respect to the letter. In terms of approving the actual budget attach, which is the budget that the Mayors Office required the executive director to submit reflecting across the board cuts that is part of what the mayors do every time theres a budget, you know, reduction, every department is supposed to show their work in terms of what they would eliminate if they had to eliminate 10 and i think based on the discussion that weve been having here today, that im unlikely to hear a motion that we recommend that reduced budget that is what the executive director was required to submit to the mayor on june 12th. Fell free to correct me if im the main content of the leather is our strongest statement possible that, given the circumstances, we really could not operate with a reduced budget. Nevertheless, it is what it is. You know, outlining everything that commissioner chiu hasom mentioned would be aio very strg letter. The reason i wanted to add onto the p permit fee possibility is because we need to be nimble and reality is, you know, everyone every department will say we cannot survive with a 15 and 10 cut and this being a budget season and a record from the commission to the board i think it would be good to at least start the paper trail. We want to entertain, we want to store this with you to take money from not take but share the resources and revenue from other departments, the permit fees, those impact the Ethics Commission mission even though its the last paragraph or what have you, its going to be part of a on going buy log a log with the board and we want to come back in september and they would say its a good idea. I would think that this is going to be an ongoing discussion with interested parties and stakeholders and i just feel in this is going to be a record from the commission, future burgbudge tory constraints const it in. Even though its one line or one paragraph we can say we introduced this and you know, how is it going . So i dont think that should be the center of the letter, because the center of the letter is our opposition to the cut because its going to impact our work. Thats going to be the key but at the same time, moving forward, it would be good to really start the dialogue. The fact that people think, hey, were thinking about extending our revenue base too. Were not just going to complain about dont cut us. That is not going to solve any problems. Were not going to bring in the money right now. At least get things started. So thats the reason why i thought it would be good to include the suggestion that working with the board to explore other revenues within the City Government and i think for commissioner bushs suggestions of private grant, that may be another separate motion or separate consideration for future agenda item. I want to make sure were really clear, we have the motion that you made, which includes this concept of both of strong focus message based on commissioner chius point. The link to the not the one before the Mayors Office right now. I agree with your point that expressing that the commission is committed to identifying an ongoing sources from Department Work orders and the per pit and filing fees that represent the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the commissions work is something we invite a dialogue with the thats the gist of what i understand the letter, hopefully that reflects what everyone else thinks and commissioner bush, you had your hand up so, if you wanted straighten me out on those points or add to it, i would appreciate it. Thank you, i appreciate that. I think that we need to take another thought about money coming from other departments. So, for example, you are talking about how much its going to cost to do the form 700 filings. Well, we dont have a dollar figure, anybody, about ho anywhh its going to be. Were going to save other departments money that theyre spending now to do the filing in their own offices. They have a commissioner commisy or director who has to take the 6,300 or so many people who have to file. They all have to be kept in records housed in those departments. All of those costs will now end for them and its money that could be made available to pay for the Ethics Commission to do Electronic Filings. Theres no reason we cant see that one has transferred to the other. The second is thing is work orders are tried and true in cases of emergencies and this is one where the city is facing an emergency. So i think that you can ask for work orders from people who have similar situations and jobs, like the Controllers Office and they do have funds or auditing and i was on the bonds Oversight Committee and there are several Million Dollars that are available and those funds were doing audits and theres no reason why that couldnt be tapped at least in part to take care of additional auditing for the Ethics Commission. I think they would be willing to do it. When you do put the letter together, it has to have a sheet on it that spells out what the cost is of each of the items that were not going to do. What is it is it going to cost us not to do the annual report. What what would it cost to do the things are supervisor feed because when i keep hearing that we are funding the Core Functions of the commission, why arent these things listed adds Core Commission options. Theyre in the charter. They are passed by the voters. How can they not be Core Functions of the department . They are core function the. Theres never been a discussion ive seen that are not Core Functions. Thank you. Im going to both recognize commissioner i mean, executive director pelham and i see that steve vassy, the director of technology has his hand up. Is there a technological problem we should be aware of . Chair ambrose, no, thank you. Steven massey can answer the question that commissioner bush asked about, what does it take and what are the costs. If thats helpful, we can take a moment to let steve walk through, briefly, what those elements are. We know specifically what it will take to get the form 700 filing process back on track. I would appreciate that because its something that the board is going to be inquiring about and i want to make sure that i know the answers. Not with stabbing, hopefully everyone has a snack bar or something handy. I realize that were going well into the lunch hour and im going to plan on taking another five minute break after we get through agenda item 5, because i know we have individuals who are waiting for action on waiver requests. I dont know how long theyre available. Stephen, thank you very much for standing by and answering this question . Yes, so, again, Stephen Massey the director of technology your mic is too far away from your mouth. Can you hear me now . Perfectly, yes, thank you. Yes, so id like to address the chairs question, what is needed inaudible . Let me provide you with a bit of background on the project. The form 700 project is part of a much Larger Initiative called the efiling conversion project funded by the commit on nation technology. This included a number of efiling projects inaudible im sorry, your mic is fading in and out. Is it just me . Do i have a dad headset. Theres something about your its like every third word, you fade off again. Sounds good. So, now you went completely mute. All right. Back up supplies there. Thats good. Can you hear me clearly now. Its perfect. Great. Get everybody one of those. [laughter] third mic is a charm. The form 700 projects is part of a Larger Initiative that was funded by the committee on Information Technology that is called the filing con investigation project. This included a number of efiling projects and improvements that the Commission Campaign finance data. That included the positions for the project were funded for the first year of the project so the items for the first phase have been completed but the form 700 project was part of the second phase of that efind conversion project. From the committee on Information Technology, we have non personnel funding available to purchase all of the licenses that are necessary for all filers to file electronically for two years and fund the training and other project costs. What we dont have is funding for personnel for the project. So there are two things we need. One, is we need to restore the funding for the existing staff positions and i say that because we have had to shift a lot of the work around in the office in the wake of the various vacancies that weve had and the on going Disaster Service work. We need to get back to certain sense of normalcy in the office. Specifically, for this project, we need two key positions restored. First, there is an efiling support specialist position we identified we needed for this project to provide support to filing officers in the we estimated that would cost be in salary and benefits. We requested that information on Information Technology in our february budget submission and it was rejected by the committee. In addition to that position, the Commission Also in the last fiscal year, had four Technology Positions on staff. There are three if business annalists and one i. S. Engineer and the i. S. Engineer was the position that was responsible for the Campaign Finance dashboards and various data systems and some of certain subset of our filin our efili. That was eliminated effective july 1st. The work from that position was transferred to a different Commission Technology staff person, which is the senior i. S. Business annalist. That senior i. S. Business annalist is needed for this form 700 project. So we need to restore the i. S. Engineer position and it costs 196,000 in salary and benefits allowing us to dedicate the senior i. S. Business annalist back to that form 700 project. Its those two key positions, about 320,000 in salary and benefits per year. Ok. Thank you. That is really helpful and very explicit and something that ill sure at the level of controller, or i mean the Mayors Office and the budget and legislative annalist is exactly what theyre going to look at and toward the extend they want to satisfy our need to accomplish this objective. With that, i have a hand from director and some, what i want to im trying get a idea where im at. We have a motion from commissioner lee and it was amended by commissioner chiu. Commissioner lee, if you if you modify your motion to reflect commission chius amendment that we also im going to go back and make sure i understand what that amendment was. Its two pages back. It was two include the corruption and contrast that with the budget ask and the over all budget amount of the Ethics Commission. I have no problem with that. Can we assume your modified motion is and im going to try to state that were going to send a letter to the board that the chair is going to draft. Im actually going to have the vicechair be my co reviewer because you made the motion and you are the vicechair. What we are going to say is we are going to have a strong mesa focus message and in San Francisco and how pressing it is that we have the Resources Available to meet our existing staffing level as well as the proposed budge as of february 2020 and wire going to tie that to the controllers recommendations and im going to finish by assuring the board the commission will do everything in its power to identify alternative sources of fund beyond the general fund including for example, because i dont want to identify all of them, permit fees and filings as well as work orders from departments that are benefited or impacted by these ethical issues, in addition to grants and foundations and that we will be pursuing that through the fall. In the meantime, because of the timing problem we have, with not getting the appropriation until october and wanting to meet these dead lines and im going to call out specifically the filing of the form 700 that has a specific deadline, we need these funds restored now. If that generally sounds like the message that we want to then, im going to ask commissioner lee first, that would reflect her motion and im going to ask for a second on that motion and then im going to ask jerred, if there are any Public Comments on an extensive discussion about this particular motion that the public was not previously aware of. So, commissioner lee. You summarized it perfectly. Good. Commissioner chiu. Yes, i would second commissioner lees motion. All right. And i dont see any commissioner hands up at this moment. Can you tell us if we have any public speakers online who want to comment on this motion that is before the commission for adoption . Madam chair, there are currently no speakers in line, however, because they were unaware that this motion would be part of the agenda, id ask that we wait to allow people to either call in or if theyre on webex to raise their hands. Can you remind the public of the phone number that they call in on . Please continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. If you want to raise your hand, you may dial star 3 to raise your hand. If you just joint this meeting, you are own the Public Comments regarding the current motion to create a letter from the commission by the chair and vicechair to be sent to the board of supervisors concerning the commissioners budget. If you are using webex, the application or the Browser Extension you may raise your hand by clicking on the hand icon. Ak ta rate is that panel but going to the video section and clicking on the participants panel in the navigation baron the lower portion. Do we have any callers . Everyone stretch. I still see no callers for Public Comment. All right. Thank you very much. Hearing no callers for Public Comment, on this additional as respect oaspect of agenda item e Public Comment is now closed on this motion and i am going to ask the moderator to please call the role on the motion as i just most recently restated it and that it was moved by commissioner lee and seconded by commissioner chiu, if you can call the roll. Clerk thank you, madam chair. A motion has been made and it has been seconded. I would now call roll. [ roll call vote ] clerk with five votes in the affirmative and no votes opposed, the motion is approved. Thank you. I appreciate all the staff work on this budget matter and i know from your own computer, kitchen table, et cetera, youve done a good work to bring all this information forward. So, im going to call the consent calender. We have agai agenda items 59. I am going to take another fiveminute recess after item 10. So were going to do the consent and item 10 and then well take a fiveminute recess before we do the staff. On the consent items, i want to clarify something, which i should have clarified before with staff. So, the City Attorney, if you are listening, my understanding is they can ask any one of these consent items be called separately, which would simply mean that the staff would present the items separate from the consent, the written Consent Agenda item thats before all of you. And there would be public testimony separately on that item. And in addition, at a Commission Meeting, members of the public can ask that individual consent items be called out from the consent calender and heard as stand alone items. We havent really built into our script as it were for this process an opportunity for that to happen and so, deposi deputyy attorney, can you confirm the public does have an opportunity to ask these items be considered separately before we proceed . Yes chair ambrose. Even a member of the commission or any member of the public can severe an item from the consent calender. Im going to ask our moderator, jerred, to again to ask before we start on the agenda items and before i well, first of all, im going to call the items and then im going to ask you to ask if theres anybody, any member of the public who wants us to severe one of these items from the consent calender and have them read and heard as a distinct stand alone item and well go to if they do not and wore going to go to Commission Discussion on the items and ill go to Public Comment and ill ill ask for of the consent calender collectively items 59. And i am going to call items 59. Its draft minutes for the Ethics Commission january 17, 2020 regular meeting. We have the draft minutes for the Ethics Commission february 21st, 2020 regular meeting. There is a proposed stipulation decision and order in the matter of aaron peskin for supervisor, 2016, aaron peskin and stacey elins which is sf complaint number 151637a. And that material is available on the commissions website and in the packet before the commissioners. Along with the next item which is a proposed stipulation decision and order in the matter of keeping San Francisco affordable, support by tenant and housing advocate and jennifer fieber, sfec complaint number 151643, 171824. Finally, the proposed stipulation decision and order in the matter of margin philhauer for supervisor 2016, margin fillhauer and stacey owens, that would be sfec complaint number 1617082. Moderator, can you ask if theres any members of the public who would like to severe any of these items . And i think we need to find that out first and then well ask for commission comments on the and well take a vote. Ok. All right, thank you. If my members of the public intend to wish to call any tack items within the consent calender, agenda items number 59, please raise your hand. If you are calling in and are currently dogge logged in, presr 3 to be added to the comment queue. If you join us through webex application or the webex Browser Extension, click on the raise hand icon located in the bottomright corner of the participants panel. As i said before, because theres a lag time on sfgovtv. Were going to wait 30 seconds for it to watch up to see if theres any members of the public, viewing sfgovtv, who wish to call in. Were waiting for people to call in. Im assuming because these are stipulations that the party involved has already signed and the negotiation and have been approved by the executive director that we dont have any presentations. These are on content calender. Theres no presentation from the staff or from the individuals involved and in light of that, im not hearing any public thats correct. Thank you, i appreciate that. And im assuming you had no comments that you needed to make, correct mr. Pierce. Thats correct. We did have a couple of parties volunteer if items were severed but i dont know if theyre prepared to do that. We were all pleased to move forward without their participation and their signatures. Ok. All right. And mr. Moderator, are there any public requesting to severe any of these items . Madam chair, i do not see any public callers raising their hands. Im going to ask for a motion and a second and im going to ask for Public Comment on the actual stipulations themselves and then well move to a vote. Can i get a motion to move the consent caldera again da items 59. So moved. So moved. Second. Commissioner smith, moved and commissioner lee seconded. Does that work . Fine with me. Ok. All right. Im looking down. So all right, so the matter is before us for debate. Im going to as again for Public Comment on the substance of any of the consent calender items. If any, and maybe while were waiting to see if the public is out there or any of the commissioners have any comments that they want month make with regard to the minutes or the proposed stipulations. Seeing none. I didnt see you. Those little hands need to flash. Commissioner bush, if you please unmute your mic. I think im unmuted now, right. You are, very good. Please do that. Jump up and down and wave if im not seeing you. I have to train myself to see the hand. This is just a question for information purposes. Looking at the effort that those go this Enforcement Actions and the fines that are made, can someone give me a rough idea of how much staff time and money goes into these Enforcement Actions. Sure, commissioner bush. Each of these before you today is arise fro a raising from then finance arena i believe two if not all thro three of them resud from an audit. Staff may have identified liability that an audit had not previous identified, for example, in the matter of the agenda item number 8, regarding whether someone misrepresent sented, knowingly or willfully misrepresent sented to the commission, i would have to pull the investigators over zoo settlement to how much enforcement staff time may have been invested in these it depends on how much back and fourth staff engage in with the respondents. It happens that respond hands are ready and willing and it happens if they have questions about this theory of liability or the amount of penalty that were seeking in a given matter most would be handled through the expanded fixed in a program were envisioning to call the streamline Administrative Enforcement Program when staff is able to. If someone is late filing their storm 700, the maximum penalty is 100. Ten dollars a day for 10 days and its 100. After that, the penalty doesnt grow any further. So, you began to say ok, if you are not going to face a fine larger than 100, then no one is going to put staff time into it. If someone used something less than a 10point type, which is one of these cases and something as relatively minor in terms of its impact on the voter and misrepresenting facts to the voters, i understand you are looking at a streamline thing and were talking about two separate processes. One is the and additionally if two years late filing those forms, the Enforcement Division could decide to devote resources bring in administrative enforcement and above and beyond that 100 late fee so that option remains on the table because the administrative enforcement is separate from that collection process. To your point about how streamlined programs may be in practice, of the five kinds of policies, one of the reasons that resolving those matters that streamlined is that policy currently envisions violations that are more obvious on their face than other kinds of violations and so by their very nature, they dont require a lot of investigative resources. In addition to that, it caused the policy and visions a schedule of penalties and theres a degree of transparency and predictable the regulated community understands and there is, at the same time, incentive structure buil built in im g to stop because this is Important Information and its going to come up in the context of our looking at increasing our alternatives sources of funds and im concerned, because were in a consent calender and theres a lot of potential there for back and fourth about the cost and the sources enforcement and i want to make sure that we get that in the right agenda items so we can tie it down and wrap it up in a bow and take an action and get more money to the commission. Plus, im also concerned because we are getting into 2 00 now and we have a member of the public waiting for us to take action on a matter that is coming up as agenda item 10. Im going to move us along. Jerred, im assuming we have not heard from you, do we have any members of the public who want to comment on the consent calender . We don have anyone calling in. Im going to close Public Comment on the consent calender. I have a motion and a second. Can you please call the roll on agenda items 59. The consent calender items. Clerk a motion has been made and seconded to adopt the consent calender items 59 together. I will now call roll. [ roll call vote ] thank you, very much. Five votes in affirmative and motion is unanimously approved. Thank you. Im going to call agenda item 10 and im just for the benefit of the callers, after we hear this item, it is my plan to take a fiveminute break before we move to agenda items 11, which would be the discussion of the staff policy report. So calling agenda item 10, this would be a discussion of possible action regarding a request for a waiver of compensated advocacy restrictions for iaku askew. Theres information in your comment and a comment letter from the city Mayors Office i believe that is also available in the packet explaining the nature and reasons for them seeking a waiver for this appointment, so, with that, im going to ask for pat ford to give us a brief presentation on this item. Thank you, very much. Thank you, chair ambrose. Can you hear me clearly . Yes, very good. Great. Thank you and thank you everybody on the commission. Welcome commissioner bush, good to see you all after so many months. As chair ambrose mentioned, this agenda item represents a request for a waiver to a particular conflict of interest rule and so, ill make my comments fairly brief just to get some context on this request and explain the nature of my recommendation on this and then the requesting office here is the Mayors Office and hank heckle from the Mayors Office is present and so just to make sure mr. Flores, that mr. Heckle has been promoted to whatever status he needs to be promoted to in order to speak and likewise with mr. Akew. I believe he is also here and would like to speak. I think when im done ill probably turn it over to them. This is a request for a waiver. So there are conflictofinterest rules that apply both during and after an individual service has a city officer. And in some narrow circumstances, the conditions can actually wave the application of those rules. And only its possible with very limited number of conflictofinterest rules and code creates guidance as to when a waiver is appropriate. So the particular conflict of interest rule, that issue here is the rule against compensated advocacy. And essentially that rule says that when an individual is serving an officer of the city and county, the individual cannot accept payment to then advocate on behalf of a private party and communicate to other officers or employees of the city to advocate for that private individuals interest. Kind of like being a lobbyist or consultant or someone accepting payment to communicate on behalf of a client and it has prohibited that for city officers. However, this is one of a few conflictofinterest rules where the code does envision a waiver to be possible. It allows for waiver. So, the request that we received here is from the Mayors Office, the mayor has Appointment Authority for this particular seat on the Arts Commission and this seat must be sold by an architect and in this case the mayor would like to appoint mr. Asskew to serve on the Arts Commission however as they will complain to you, he does engage the partisan architecture practice in activities that would be considered advocacy. It would not be allowed if he would an Arts Commissioner. So, these factors the code sets out for the commission to consider and the if the waiver is not granted. If we cannot take someone who engages already in compensated advocacy will it limit the pool of people from which the mayor can chose someone. Also, the ability and the person to engage in his or her vocati vocation, the what i always recommend and any time im analyzing a waiver request to the commission is the commission exercises the power sparingly and essentially uses a balancing approach. Where you are balancing the need one handaiver on the and any danger of unfair advantage or undue influence on the other hand. And in cases where you find that the need for the waiver outweighs the danger of inpro pre tee, thats when it waivers proper. Otherwise the balance is not there and the waiver is probably inappropriate. So in thisis particular instanc, i do recommend that a waiver be granted along the lines of what was requested. And essentially what was requested is that mr. Akew be allowed, as he sits on the Arts Commission, to continue to engage in some limited level of compensated advocacy limited to aa specific list of city commissions but not all city commissions and City Employees but just the set of commissions that he currently interacts with now and i would also add that e only bed allowed to engage in compensated advocacy for clients and it was part of the needs thatur was messed and i think tt so with that in mind, i think the harm is minimal. Can you recognize mr. Akew andnk first. I can speak first. Can you hear me . I do, thank you very much, and welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. Im the principal and finder of the y studio, a firm based here in San Francisco. I was born in st. Lukes and raised in exselcisor community. And i want to give my strengths to the community. And at the studio we work on project types, including custom homes and office and multifamily development. However, much of our work is dedicated to serving the underserved and the underhoused in our communities, focusing on permanently Affordable Housing for seniors and family and the formerly homeless. I have been fortunate to serve on the bond Oversight Committee which oversees the bond expenditures by the Unified School District and a board member of the high school where i chair the campus stewardship committee. And a member of the usff Art Department advisory board. I have never been before the Arts Commission but was introduced by a previous member who vacated the position. She suggested that i might be a good fit to lend my personal and professional perspective. After educating to the role of the commission, its responsibility and its time commitments, i agreed to be considered. Earlier this year i was humbled and honored to be selected by mayor london breed. However, unfortunately, the unique experience and professional skills that i bring are in indiscernible and thats the reason thus, the reason that were before you today. As a Small Business owner im occasionally required to interact with the city agencies to discuss the proposed projects for both prftd and nonprofit clients. Additionally, i am sometimes required to present before the city commissions or boards, and with the projects. On occasion i could have another City Employee present the project but most cases it would not be possible or appropriate. Thus, without a waiver i would need to forego offering my professional skills to this Public Service opportunity. I respect the intent of the campaign and the governmental conduct code with serving on this commission and as a licensed california architect and a member of the American Institute of architects and the organization minority architects i have a code of ethics obligations to define my obligations to the public and to inform my conduct with public agencies and public officials. Thank you for your consideration of the request before you today and i am available to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, i appreciate your presentation and standing by. Was the individual from the Mayors Office, did you want to always speak or wait to see if the commissioners have any questions . Im happy to speak now, chair, and also follow up with any questions. All right, their something that you thank we need to hear . Please proceed. Good afternoon, chair ambrose, and members of the commission, im here to present our request for a waiver for mr. Asku. The basic facts were set fort by mr. Askew and the council was that set out the standards here. We believe that mr. Askew is the best candidate for the open architect seat on the Arts Commission, based on his extensive experience and deep local roots and commitment to the public good. As well as his perspective as the leader of a vibrant, upandcoming San Francisco art council. We believe that the waiver is warranted due to his unique suitability, because, frankly, as he explained in the absence of a waiver he would be forced to choose between service to the city and his livelihood. Further, touching on one of the factors, mr. Ford mentioned a waiver is warranted here because without one the citys ability to fill this seat becomes very difficult. And it becomes impaired. The standard as mr. Ford set out also is for both the ability of the city to put forward a qualified nominee, as well as any hardship on the applicants ability to practice his profession. I think that all of the factors here supports the waiver. To be clear, mr. Askew is not a lobbyist, hes not a permit consultant, and we certainly recognize the importance of this particular rule, as well as all of the related ethics laws in the city code. And theres been a lot of discussion today about the citys ongoing efforts to reform and improve those laws and define those laws and we in the Mayors Office strongly support those efforts and we will continue to do everything that we can to cooperate with those efforts. However, we dont think that those concerns are implicated here, but just to go through the factors briefly, in terms of the ability to recruit qualified individuals to this seat, the seat is required under the city charter to be filled by an architect. Its one of two designated architect seats on the Arts Commission. As a result, this is precisely the type of situation that the waiver is designed to entrust. The waiver is built into the code to allow for professionals who are sometimes called upon to interact with other city bodies on behalf of a client, and it gives them that ability within a limited scope to practice their profession while also serving on a different city body. And the issue here is that without a waiver, the pool of available applicants here really narrows greatly. The effect would be to kind of skew the field very much in favor of retired architects or architects from larger practices and theres a tradition among the two seats that one seat may be filled by someone with a larger firm and then someone from a smaller firm. And mr. Askews case, because its an upandcoming type of practice he has a limited staff and hes not going to be able to delegate all of the matters that may come up on behalf of his clients to his staff. And so we think that if the compensated advocacy rule here is overapplied, this will greatly skew the field away from practitioners from such small upandcoming firms. And youll be steered towards retirees, and nonpracticing architects and teachers and so on, and thats not only that also has the effect of skewing the field away from younger and minority appointees, thats not only a bad policy outcome but it also thwarts the requirement that theres a diversity of the San Francisco community. Thats charter section 4. 01a1 dictates that the composition reflects the diversity of the city. The difficulty in filling this position has been borne out in our experience in our Selection Process. We received recommendations from the commissioners for this seat. Its been vacant for nearly a year now. Most of the recommendations we received were, in fact, of retired architects. And we interviewed five people but only mr. Askew had the experience of being a younger architect of color from a smaller dynamic firm. In the essence of a waiver there will be an adverse impact on the Arts Commission. As i said, theyve had one of these architect seats vacant for a long time. They werent able to proceed and then it slows the Selection Process further and they may have difficulty in quorum requirements and will continue to lack that unique perspective of an architect from a smaller firm. Sorry. I think that we have heard from both you and from the candidate. Welcome to the city family. And what i would like to know, because it does take a while to queue up Public Commentary. Mr. Moderate oor, could you look and see moderator, could you see if theres Public Comment on this item because well have to wait whatever, 30 to 90 seconds for those people to appear. So if you can i want to invite Public Comment and im assuming that mr. Heckle you would be able to wrap up your remarks in the next minute so that we dont have a delay. Certainly. Im nearing the end. Thats what i thought. Okay, thank you. Clerk there are currently three people queued up in line for Public Comment on this agenda item. Okay, if you want to complete your remarks and then well take Public Comment. And then to the commissioners. Thank you. Sure. So the other factor to consider in the Ethics Commission regulation says for the commissioner to engage in the absence of a waiver. We have already established that mr. Askew would likely have to step down in the absence of a waiver because he cant delegate readily these matters to other staff. And the other factors that was mentioned, this is a balancing test. And the purpose is to guard against undue influence and favoritism and preferential treatment by a commissioner being able to personally gain through their positions and before other bodies. We dont think that is a danger here regarding the Arts Commission itself, mr. Askew has never had one of his professional matters come before that commission. He would recuse himself as required if one of his clients projects came before the Arts Commission. And the work that he does occasionally appear before other commissions for such as planning, ocii, the board of appeals. Theres really no appreciatabl appreciatableover lap between that and what the Arts Commission does. So we think that the staff has struck the right balance in recommending that the waiver be adopted. And we strongly urge the commission to grant this limited waiver. Thank you very much, thanks to both of you for appearing and presenting and, mr. Moderator, if you could invite the first Public Commenter. Clerk welcome, caller. Caller good afternoon, commissioners. I am ali alba and i want to give feed diagnose back, if you dont mind, please, regarding what i have just heard. The party line by the attorney that works for the Mayors Office. I have heard things in my life and this is one of the funniest that i have ever heard in my life to be honest with you. Hes talking about diversity and talking about vacancy and that we cant find anybody but one person. And let me qualify one item and to be on the record. The gentleman recommended to the appointment i never met in my life. His line of business is completely different than mine. But i remind you on one thing every time that i hear about a waiver it reminds me of joliette at the San Francisco p. U. C. And how they gave her the same treatment because shes the only qualified person. San francisco is a very diverse city. San francisco has a lot of minorities just like this canada, and San Francisco have a lot of other professionals that are not engaged in doing business with the city. I can tell you again from my experience and as i have proven to you earlier today, anytime that there is a commissioner, there is always and if that commissioner has worked with an agency, with the School Districts, i cannot tell you how many commissioners that i know that are in the business of doing construction in School Districts and are actually are commissioners on the same school district. So i urge you, i urge you again in light of everything that we have been hearing about all of the corruption in San Francisco, specifically the School Districts in San Francisco, that do not give waivers to anything. If theres a conflict, that is a conflict. If there is no conflict, let it go. But in this particular case, and, again, i beg the gentleman because im not taking this personal step with him and i have never met him in my life please, do not make any waivers. A conflict is a conflict. Theres no gray. Its either white or black. Thank you. Thank you. I want to be clear though for the record this is not a request for a waiver of a conflict of interest. Which would per se this is a waiver of a rule that we have about the ability of someone who is on a commission to appear on behalf of a client in front of another commission or board or permit. So its not this is not a waiver of, you know, state or local conflict of interest law per se. This is an additional layer of protection that is in the government conduct code visavis the role and responsibility of commissioners. So i do hear the speakers comment but i want to say for the record that is not what the commission is being asked to do, were not waiving a conflict of interest per se. So i do want to ask the next public speaker to comment, please. Clerk welcome, caller. Caller good afternoon, commissioners. My name is ron henry and im here to speak in support of the askews request for a limited waiver. My script actually said good morning, but i know that its been a very long day for you all. I have known yakuh for 11 years, we met through the National Organization of minority architects, noma, which were both active. Im the director of design at hkit architect and our two offices have collaborated on four Affordable Housing projects in San Francisco, including three that replaced dangerous decrepit housing with new highquality homes. Hes a talented architect, and a social justice advocate and a lifelong San Francisco resident who understands and supports his community. I am convinced that hell be an excellent fine Arts Commissioner as he has an astute visual eye, understands well the issues of art and design in the public realm. Hes a wellspoken and thoughtful critic and embodies community concerns. His heritage will enrich the commission and allow it to be more representative of a broader crosssection of San Francisco. As a small firm owner, his personal involvement in the architectural work and public process is critical. He takes a lead role in presentations such as those made to the planning commission. He is a key voice in the office and im sure that you can understand how he is not granted this waiver and serving on the commission would impose a very difficult constraint on him and his office. Finally, i support the waiver because yakuh is yakuh. I know that he would not allow his involvement in the commission to ever benefit his business or personal interest. Hes one of the most honorable persons that i have known, upfront, straightforward and honest. To grant him this waiver allows him to serve on the Arts Commission and to enrich the city and its residents with his expertise. I respectfully ask you to grant this request. Thank you. Mr. Moderator, i believe that you said that theres a third caller on the line . Clerk yes, welcome, calle caller. Hello, caller . Hello, caller, are you still there . Caller . The caller seems to be unresponsive. Hello, caller, youre on the line. Caller, are you still there . Chair ambrose, the caller is unresponsive. All right, i assume that theres no way that you can ping somebody so that they wake up and know that its their turn after six hours of maybe waiting for us to come to them. So go ahead and keep the Public Comment line active to give that person a chance to get back to the phone while i ask the commissioners if they have any questions or comments about this proposal. I need to close Public Comment before i take a motion. Any movement on the Public Comment line . Mr. Moderator, do you see any clerk there is another caller that just joined us. Let me put that caller through. Caller if you would, please. Thank you. If you would, please, thank yo. Clerk hello, caller . Caller hi, commissioners, mark stalman again. I just heard about the Housing Authority which raised some concerns. Were looking at d. B. I. And planning as well and there are edit problems here because having the Commission Appointment, it is conveyed before a decisionmaking body on entitlement and it conveys the problem when they do this job they have a special guard gold star on their shoulders, that would make their work more salient with the decisionmaking body and that turns into money. Has the nominee or the commissioner had any experience with Rodriguez Santos and done about work with his organization . I will listen on the line. Thank you very much. I want to lets see have we clerk let me try back with that caller that was previously unresponsive. Before we proceed with the Commission Discussion i want to make sure that weve exhausted all of the comments. Clerk welcome, caller. Are you there . Hello, caller, are you there . The caller is still unresponsive, chair. All right, then, im going to actually close Public Comment. And proceed with Commission Discussion. I dont see any hands yet. I do want to im going to give mr. Askew an opportunity for any followon comment that he has. I mean, in my long career in City Government i did have an opportunity to work with the Arts Commission on their various public art projects. I understand their role in reviewing civic building structures, whether its the pump house or the Water Department or, you know, something along the port. I recognize the importance of having somebody who brings a unique and an informed perspective to that discussion. And i hear the report from the Mayors Office and the concern about how we would exclude small architects, people who have hands on on the projects in the community addressing, you know, the myriad of issues that come up in terms of Historic Preservation and neighborhood preservation and context, etc. And i really like the idea of having somebody on the Art Commission who has that integral exposure as opposed to just somebody who works for those who design high rises in hong kong. Not to say that perspective is not also important on our Arts Commission, but i also recognize that you cant meet the charter requirement and be an architect and also be in business and not have to show up at the planning commissioner or the d. B. I. Or a Fire Commission to get a permit. Because if we have problem with somebody on the art Commission Also doing business in the realm of architecture, then we should change the requirement and take amend the charter and not say that somebody in the Art Commission needs to know anything about architecture because those two things, i would argue, are exactly what the waiver is designed to address. This unique circumstance where we want the expertise, we want the insight, and we want to put limits on it. I mean, clearly, youre not going to be able to represent one of your clients who are before the Art Commission or on a matter where the a decision or one of those other bodies is going to affect your personal remuneration on a project. But with all of that said, i would be prepared to move for a granting the waiver in this item. And i would entertain a second. Second. Thank you very much, commissioner smith. And with that, mr. Askew, ill give you a moment if you have anything that you want to add here. If not, im going to call the moderator to call the roll. I dont, i just want to say thank you. Youre welcome, and thank you for agreeing to serve. I wish you well. Those meetings can be pretty intense sometimes. So mr. Flores, if you would please call the roll on the motion which is before the commission moved by chair ambrose and seconded by commissioner smith to approve the waiver request for regarding compensated advocacy restriction for yakuh askew as stated in the in the Commission Meeting. I dont want to recite whatever limitations are. Im assuming theyre memorialized, correct, mr. Ford . Yep, that is correct. Yes, the memo is attached to the agenda item 10 explains exactly which departments and which city staff mr. Askew would be able to engage in compensated advocacy with. Okay, very well then. Mr. Moderator, please call the roll. Clerk thank you, madam chair. I will now call the roll [roll call] commissioner chu, your microphone, please. I was muted. There we go. Okay. My vote is yes, but i wanted to note for the record that at this moment in time and the evolution and development of our city and country, with the black lives matter movement, i think that it is absolutely critical to have people of color in the room, at the table, making decisions about public art in the city of San Francisco. And i just wholeheartedly support this waiver and i want to thank mr. Askew for being willing to serve. Thank you. Clerk well continue the roll call. Vicechair lee. Yes. Commissioner smith. Yes. Chair ambrose. Yes. The five votes in the affirmative and no votes opposed. The motion has been unanimously approved. All right. Thank you very much. And congratulations. As i had mentioned previously, before we take up agenda item 11 which is the staff policy report, were going to take a fiveminute recess. I need to grab some crackers or something so i dont faint. And, anyway, well be back in five minutes for i assume this is you, mr. Ford, who are going to give the staff report. Correct. All right, very good. Look forward to it. See you in five. Clerk we okay, were back in live session now. Chair ambrose, please begin. All right, thank you very much, moderator, were resuming the Ethics Commission meeting and were going to call agenda item which is the discussion of the monthly staff policy report and i guess that we should say the multimonthly staff staff policy report. If any members of the public and if they can offer Public Comment, they should dial in now and enter star, 3, to be added to the Public Comment queue. Mr. Ford, we look forward to your presentation. Thank you. Thank you, chair ambrose. Yes, this report does cover indiscernible you havent heard from us since february. So this i guess comprises four or so months of work, although i will note that as director mentioned i was out for a month and i was doing procurement of p. P. E. Along with john kemp from our office and we were both doing that and tommy mclean from our office was our supervisor, actually, so we had a ethics cohort there. His Operations Division of the e. O. C. So although i didnt put that in the policy report i could talk to you offline about that if you are interested. But as to the report itself, i think that what id like to do is to take it in reverse order here. The report as always is divided into two parts, the first part talks about the policy projects that are ongoing that have been identified in the policy prioritization plan. And the second part talks about all of the other stuff that policy division works on. And since this month i have included the policy prioritization plan for your review, and i think that is probably what youll be more interested in actually talking about, ill talk about that second because it would be a segue into your discussion. And so ill actually start on page 5 of the policy report, under the heading miscellaneous administrative projects. And ill briefly recap those and ill go into the policy projects proper. So a number of items came up over the first half of the year. And put some of the more notable ones here so the first that i discussed is the postelection Public Financing report. So this report is one that the code delivers that they deliver to the board of supervisors and the mayor after each election in which at least one candidate receivinreceives public financi. And its a program that we administer whereby the mayoral candidate can receive public funds to help to run their campaigns. And after one of one or more candidates has made use of this program we deliver basic statistics about the operation of the program to the board and the mayor, that they can understand things like how many candidates got Public Financing, how many received Public Financing, what was the total amount of Public Financing they received. How were the spending limits suggested and the raises. So they can get an overview of the program. This report is separate from the Public Financing review project which was the 18month or so long project that changed many aspects of the program. And this report is also separate from what staff hopes to do some time in the near future which is to go back and to review how those changes actually played out. And to try to assess if we can what effects the review project has on the program. So this report is not that important. This is a fairly by comparison, a narrow report that just seeks to deliver on our statutory obligation to inform the board and the mayor of whats going on with the program year to year. As to the more comprehensive analytical report about the Public Financing review project, you know, obviously weve got a big election this year, but also election that is taking place under some pretty unique circumstances. So well definitely be looking at how the Public Financing program performs in the 2020 elections. But it may require some Additional Data from subsequent elections to get a better idea of how the Program Reforms in a normal election. So youll hear from me in the future for that one and we look forward to doing more of that analytical review down the road. And another item that i have been devoting some attention to is the public advocate ballot measure. This is about a measure that potentially could create if approved by the voters, new elected office called the public advocate that is that has a fairly broad duties and powers, but essentially is designed to root out corruption, fraudulent use of taxpayer money, abuse of public trust, etc. And anyone can make a point to the public advocate, the public advocate would have some investigatory powers in that it would have the ability to make recommendations to the board. There are some crossover elements in the legislation that touches on the Ethics Commission. Which is why ive been looking at it and why i put it here. And in particular i highlighted some language in my report that is contained in this legislation that essentially says that the public advocate can receive complaints arising under the campaign and the governmental conduct code, the code that this department administers and if they do receive such complaints, they have to refer it to our office and to the City Attorney and the District Attorney. However, if the public advocate does not approve of how the Ethics Commission handles the complaint, the public advocate could recommend a different resolution of the complaint. Also if the complaint isnt handled in what the public advocate considers to be a reasonable time, the public advocate could intervene. And ultimately the public advocate would have the ability to conduct an independent investigation of the complaint, and to recommend to the board of supervisors and the mayor that the Ethics Commission should handle the complaint differently and can recommend the legislation, the administrative or legislative or budgetary action to the board about that. So i give that to you so that you know about it. I did engage can we interrupt you on that point. I was just looking and just so you know too because we have your written report and the public has your written report, you dont have to read things that you have, you know, quoted and copied into the document. But what i would like to know is where this proposed ballot measure is. It doesnt say whether or not its already qualified for the ballot or if its on in november. And i was just trying to look at the board, it looks like it might still be in rules committee for consideration . Yeah, i believe that is the status of it right now. Okay. So this passed the deadline to qualify for the November Ballot or is it teed up in order to qualify for the November Ballot . I believe that theyre still on track if you have it on the November Ballot. I dont think that has passed yet. Okay. And then, i mean, my understanding is that the commission certainly would be precluded from taking a position on the ballot measure should it be on the ballot. I dont know what the rules are in terms of if were expected to provide comment about measures that affect the Ethics Commission as theyre being considered at the board. Can you enlighten me on that . Have you ever made a presentation that rules about a pending ballot measure on behalf of the Ethics Commission . Yeah, i mean, you highlight a definite concern which is that the Ethics Commission regulates the ballot measure campaign. So, you know, we cannot take a position on a ballot measure. This one is not a ballot measure yet. It is still, you know, in preballot measure form. But, nonetheless, i do avoid taking a position on i would say the supplemental merits of a ballot measure. I dont engage with sponsors of ballot measure legislation as to whether or not its a good idea to have a public advocate. I consider that to be too fundamental to the measure where it would then appear that the Ethics Commission had closed the or posed the measure. However, i will engage and i do engage with the sponsors on what i would call procedural or administrative aspects of it. So, for example, jeff pierson, i did provide feedback to the sponsors about some changes that we thought they should make which was to incorporate the Whistleblower Program into this. So that if an individual participated in a public advocate investigation, that that would be activity that then they could not be retaliated against for engaging in. I dont want to go too far into the substance of the feedback and i wanted to the frame around this particular topic so that we knew where it was in the citys public process. Anyway, ill let you go back to your staff report, thank you for answering my questions. And i do see a hand from commissioner chu because she waved and flagged at me again. Im sorry if you wanted to interject here, please do. Yes, thank you, chair ambrose. I had a question for about the process. And so i understand that it is practice not to take a position on the advisability or the desirability of a ballot measure or potential ballot measure. But the provisions that you just highlighted in terms of investigation, it creates i think some confusion about which entity to go to, if there is a complaint and who investigates and that theres as the commission doesnt engage in a timely fashion, and what is timely. Is it appropriate to engage with the sponsors to provide a little more clarity and clear lines of the responsibility and authority and accountability on these measures Going Forward before it goes to the voters . And if it gets passed and it would become that much more difficult to wed have to go back to the voters to change any of the provisions. This is a not perfect law, they get passed and we all have to live with it after the fact. And we could identify some of the issues and present any kind of indiscernible or difficulties down the road that would be worth doing. So i can tell you that for the feedback that i did provide them, which pertains to the Whistleblower Program, that their response was that they were not interested in amending the legislation. That they would prefer to have any amendments at this point be done through followon legislation. So even if i were to raise this issue, you know, of trying to more clearly describe the nature of the Public Advocates oversight role over the Ethics Commission, i suspect that i would get the same answer from them at this point. Especially since as chair ambrose had highlighted, its getting late in the year here, so theyre probably eager to try to get this thing on the ballot. I think that is why theyre not receptive to recommendations for amendments at this point. Just as a followup to that, can you clarify, pat, for my benefit and fellow commissioners and those listening online, if theres a ballot measure and there are subsequent changes that one wants to be made legislatively afterwards, is the requirement to go back to the voters to do that . Or could the could the board and the Ethics Commission enact legislation by twothirds majority with changes . So correct me if im wrong, Deputy Attorney chen, but i believe that it depends on whether or not the legislation itself has amendment language. So i think that the issue, you know, here is whether or not this ballot measure contains that. Id have to look, although i think that it is able to be amended through regular legislative process since the sponsors are already talking about followon legislation. So unless they misunderstand the nature of this, i think that they will be able to do followon legislation and we do intend at this point to engage with them to get this whistleblower language in. So at that point we could try to also to have them create some more clarity over what is this dynamic between the two offices on investigations. Yes, thank you. And i would actually its the power to amend the legislation is not included in the ballot measure, i would ask and recommend that that be brought to their attention so they could include that Going Forward. Otherwise, their ability to address additional issues will be hamstrung as and it would also encourage them to the more time that you spend thinking through some of the potential issues on the frontend, you can save a lot of headache on the backend. Yes, noted, thank you. I will definitely explore that. Okay, thank you, then. And youre correct, that is exactly it has to be written in there. So if you want to move on and you were going to tell us about the reviews and im just looking at your report and process litigation. I dont know how much detail you were going to go into those before you take us back to the main item but the floor back to you to do that. I think that minimal detail would be fine here. So, yeah, the final items here, the ffpc is engaging in some kind of policy review, there would be rules for the exact scope of that project, it is still getting sorted out. Theyre supposed to have a meeting on monday of their law and policy committee. I believe that has been cancelled at this point. So its still evolving. But they did reach out to our office to seek some information from us about what our experience has been with our local rules. So we provided that feedback to them and well be watching what their process is and participating in any way they would find helpful. Oh, and another development we did not put in this report, but another development from the fppc, is a new regulation that requires that when a Committee Reports a contribution from an l. L. C. That the Committee List the name of the l. L. C. And the name of the individual who is responsible for directing the political contributions from the l. L. C. So thats a rule that we will now be enforcing for our committees. Ive already worked with the engagement and Compliance Division so theyll work that rule into the website. And into the reporting guide next time that comes out. Another legislative update. And then the prof f litigation, its in the ninth circuit. The Attorneys Office is handling this. And we support them in whatever way we can and well, you know, be eager to see what the outcome is and to hear their guidance to us how this is with the rules of the administration of them. Great. Thank you. And thanks to commissioner bush who had, at least to my attention, called the new f. F. C. Rules on l. L. C. Disclosure. Im glad that you were able to quickly reflect that in our local law. So thats thats good to hear. Yes, the p. P. C. Theyre very good about sending updates so i had an email about that regulation update a couple weeks ago and i was able to forward that to our engagement and compliance team. So they do a good job, the f. F. C. Does a good job of notifying us of that. Great. I understand that our rules, not automatically, because obviously someone has to pick it up and move it forward but in our conduct code we recognize the political practices act and we for the most part incorporate that sort of interpretation or application in our rules, although we have additional rules in San Francisco. Is that also your understanding . So this is a situation where state law is applying directly. So the fundamentals of Committee Registration and reporting are created by state law. So the political reform act creates all of the rules that we are administering for when a committee files a 410 to set themselves up, when they file a 460 to report their financial activity and what goes on it. Those are all state laws and were administering the state laws and regulation, and so this is a regulation that applies directly to the local committee that we reghts. Thats good. Thank you for my education requires constant filling in of these. And so i appreciate that. And i will let you go back to your presentation. Thank you. So at this point ill go back to the top and talk about the policy projects on the policy prioritization plan. So at this point, both of the plans that or both of the projects that remain on the plan are complete. So those two projects were first the policy side of the universal Electronic Filing of the form 7007000. So the two policy were to have the meet and confer process with the bargaining units which took a number of months over mostly 2019. And then once that was complete, to write regulations which the Commission Approved in january. And those regulations sat at the board for two months. In march, march 17th, became effective. So those regulations will begin to require efiling january 1st. But as director pell diagnosehas discussed with you, the implementation side of that project is in limbo right now. And so pending some further developments on the budgetary side of things, you know, its not clear when e filing will begin. But for the purposes of the policy division, my participation in the regulatory part is done. So i consider this project to be completed, but obviously, ill be able to support other folks in the office as they work on this. The other project, one that is already mentioned the Public Financing review project. In january, the lead auditor rod hoj and i gave a presentation that thumbs up for all of the staff work done over that 18month project to implement all of the different administrative procedures and all of the materials and the new things on the website to help people with the project and hope that were seeing good effects of that now. But, again, this project is essentially done. So with both of those being finished and this is an appropriate time to bring the prioritization plan before you again. With again kind of an unfortunate caveat which is that with the weird budgetary situation that were in right now, its difficult to commit to a fullfledged project or give you a really clear indication of exactly what we want to do, only because if we really are going to undergo the kind of budget cuts that the Mayors Office is telling us that we need to undergo right now, that theres probably going to be some changes in what were doing right now. Projects will be moved around, and the work that the different staff are doing will probably be shuffled to some extent. So thats why the language in the policy prioritization plan here is somewhat tentative. I try and sketch out what i want to do, what i think that we should do. What i think that is important to do right now. But i do stop short of saying that its what we can do. Because im not 100 sure. So i want to be upfront and transparent that is kind of where i am right now. And actually, on that point, to the executive director, as policy prioritization plan is not an action item, its a priority. And the theory is that were going to wait to see how persuasive we are at the board in august. And then with we and back in september, were going to revisit this with you, with the executive director mr. Ford, and actually have a discussion and an action item to go forward with the new slate of policy prioritization in a pragmatic way when we know actually what resources we have and what challenges are before us. So i want to hear your your suggestions and hopeful thoughts that you have, presuming that we have the resources. And i particularly agree that the first one that you lay out here is of critical importance, but i just wanted to give the commissioner some perspective. Were not going to vote on what pat should be doing today. Were going to wait to see where were at right after the budget and then bring it to the commission in the beginning of september. And to come up with an action plan. Okay . All right. I dont know, im sorry, commissioner bush, you wanted to comment . I know that youre going to be reworking the policy prioritization plan. But my concern is that we only have three Commission Meetings left before the november election. And there are some things that i believe that would be valuable to do in advance of the november election. And which i dont see on the list. For example, i do think that policy change is needed to require permits expediters to be prohibited from making contributions or giving gifts. You know, the issue that weve got now before the before the enforcement agencies. I also think that now im trying to deal with too many screens at one time. I think that election day filing, the commission took this up once before and didnt follow through. A lot of money is spent on election day with get out the vote stuff. And that makes a big difference. It will turn an election. And yet our system as it exists now is that we only report sending until the day before the election. And not on election day. So i think that is something that needs to be taken a look at. And a third thing is the whole question of incompatible activities. You talked about some of the loopholes. But if you look at the departmental and incompatible activities, youll see that there are some built in loopholes like, for example, commissioners in some commissions are allowed to do fundraising for nonprofits that receive funds from their own commission. Well, what does that sound like . Anything that we have just seen . Yes, it does. And so i would like to suggest that when you come back before us, that you slate some of the things in that are very timely before the november election. And those are the permit consultants, disclosure and prohibitions and the Campaign Consultants and the Strategic Advisors and the mailers and electionelection efiling and incompatible activities. Thats my comment. Great. Yeah, i mean, im always glad, you know, to work with any commissioner on, you know, potential projects to put on the plan. I do want to be upfront and manage the expectations right now which is that having any legislation in place and operative before the november election is probably not realistic. Ive never seen legislation go from, you know, conception to operative date in four months which is how far we are out from the election right now. So i dont see that as being feasible, but, yeah, more than happy to work with you and to incorporate those ideas into it sounds like some could be incorporated into the project which im hoping that we will begin shortly, which is a conflict of interest review. It sounded like it was in that realm. I think they would be, but my 20 years of working in the city tells me when the moment is hot to move that it is indeed hot. And you can certainly get something through the board and signed within two months. Things like permits expediters able to make contributions and give gifts is not something that would take a whole lot of debate at the board of supervisors. The chair here, and lets just take that as an example. Certainly, it is something that im assuming that would require action by the commission, action by the board, and then referral back to the commission. Isnt that the way that it works . I mean, that would be an amendment of the of the Campaign Finance. Right. Well, the for the gift rules. I mean, its not just Campaign Finance, youre talking about gifts to city officials. Its a city code requirement that relates i think to my understanding correctly that if we initiate that, it goes to the board. If the board makes any changes, they send it back. If they dont make any changes then they could put it up for, you know, for the Committee Hearing in two readings. Is that not thats my understanding as well. And theres also yet another option and that is that things get to be too bogged down and the commission with four votes could put that on the ballot themselves. Right. Although, obviously, were going to save that for thing things we think that theres whatever resistance or a need for public engagement. I dont think that were going to get any pushback on this particular frankly, or any of the three things that you brought up. I think that the election day filing is a different question just because of the timing of, you know, the flow im not sure how you solve that technically. But in terms of taking the gift rule, i guess, on a separate note maybe we could work with the City Attorneys office. Because a permanent expediter is an agent of a person who has a matter pending before the city. So im not sure what the Disclosure Requirements are already for an agent of someone that has that pending before the city. If theres not something that we can already tag on to. They have to disclose who their clients are and how much theyre being paid and what offices theyre reaching out to. And they have to report any contributions above 100. But theres nothing about people accepting theyre not i mean, theyre Still Limited to the 50 theres a disclosure after 50, and nothing more than, what is it, 400 now . So they are limited by that basic rule but my question im assuming what you want to do is to make them a restricted source. Just like lobbyists or or campaign donors. So that they cant contribute, they cant bundle, and they cant make gifts. Thats what it comes down to. Okay. So what ive seen in the past is the easiest thing to do, which is to simply copy what exists as accepted law and apply it to a situation that is directly relevant. And i think that permit expediters are probably most relevant to expenditure lobbyists, as opposed to contact lobbyists, though it could be either one. Because what theyre doing is seeking approval for a client and theyre doing it for pay. Its relevant now because of what the controllers report comes out with. Why arent they just an expenditure lobbyist by def definition . Expenditure lobbyist is someone who reaches out to the general public but does not make contact directly with public officials. Those are called contact lobbyists. Im sorry, i missed the term. I realize that were getting into the substance of an actual amendment without having it on the calendar and im sure that there might be a few people wanting to present on that. Youre right. Im sure. Yeah, that might be a good topic for a meeting if it is something that you are planning on having a session with the interested persons on. Im going to let you go back, mr. Ford, to your agenda because i realize that were getting away from what we still have with mr. Pierces enforcement report. And we want to hear matters for the commissioner to put on the agenda and i want to get us out of here before we lose commissioner smith. So im going to hand the microphone back to you, pat and ask you to go back to talking about what you hope to do should you have the resources to do it. Sure, so essentially, a review of gift rules would be the core of this project. And theres a lot of discussion of improper gifts right now. I think that adding to the list of people who cant give gifts is, you know, within the purview of that, and so lobbyists, etc. , i think that is nicely with this. But it could go broader. It could include other kinds of conflict of interest rules too. It could touch the payments. Theres a lot of discussion on payments right now and that potentially could dovetail with the payments with what the f. C. C. Is doing right now and it might be a good time to look at that as well. And i expect as mr. Delosriosa talked about earlier that well see more information come out from the Controllers Office and the City Attorneys office that will help this project to be rooted in good information. He talked about how theyll look at friends of groups, which i think that well probably learn a little bit, yes, payments and potentially gifts when that information comes out. So that would be a bit part of this project is building on the information that were learning from these offices that are issuing subpoenas and doing wiretaps and doing really impressive information gathering projects. And what that told us about the state of things in the city and where we need to improve our laws. That would be the you know, the foundational idea of this project. And the review of the list that is a list of City Employees who have to file the form 700 and every two years the departments have to review it. This is something that i have been working on and its kind of running in the background all the time and its not a huge project, it is something that i do need to continue to work on, so this would be a second kind of subordinant project with the conflict of interest project being the main one. And as you mentioned, chair ambrose, this would be something where wed want to have interested persons meetings and talk to them about their ideas and draft legislation and the engaging list with members of the board and with the community groups. And all of the people that we want to work with when we look at legislation. Its why these projects want to work right and we want to engage with people and have a good process and that is definitely what we endeavor to do here. So thats all for me. I know that theres a lot of other things to do. Yeah, and, commissioner bush, i see that your hand is up, and i dont know if that is from before or a new its from before, im sorry. Ill take it down. No, no problem. And, obviously, this is a continuing conversation so im going to leave it at that if i might and if i dont hear anything specific questions right now for you from commissioners, i do want to ask our moderator to find out if we have Public Comment waiting so that we can start to engage those speakers. Clerk we have currently one caller in queue. All right, please call that person to the microphone. Caller the commissioners clerk hello, caller. Caller i think so that if the Ethics Commission doesnt strengthen itself, youll float away. I know this pandemic is going to go on for a couple years, two years for sure, and these type of meetings that skips the community out. For example, right now you have this 408 number and if anyone calls this 408 money they have to pay more money, you know. If its 415 number, it is rather its not too expensive. But if its a 408 number and you have no clue about it. But now you all do. The other thing about having this advocate, people are fed up because they see nothing coming out from the Sunshine Task force. And they see too many commissioners from the Ethics Commission jumping ship for whatever reason. And so what are the people going to do . In the 1960s, people fought for the Sunshine Task force and for the Ethics Commission so we could have accountability and transparency. Now one of the longtimers is mark shalaman and he spoke today twice or three times. For me to come to Pay Attention to this and how long it takes, i have a lot of work to do, you know. And nobody is funding me, and one case of the Controllers Office is taking about two years. I did all of the heavy lifting. So as much as the controller talks about what he talks clerk would you like me to go incamera . Who is going to walk the walk . Im glad that we have mr. Bush because of his experience. To bring some enlightenment. And while mr. Bush is saying that you can do something in a month or two if you have the clout. But if you want to go to legalese, and make all of these laws and spend time in writing and discussing and beating around the bush well be right there. So we need to have the ability to have clout so that this these crooks who are hood winking in broad daylight can be brought to it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Moderator, are there any further commenters in the queue . Clerk no, there are no more callers in queue. All right, then im going to close Public Comment on this item. And there is no action required for the commission and were not adopting the plan of action as i said that were going to focus on getting the resources that we need so that we can do everything that mr. Ford identified and more. And with that i would like to go ahead and call agenda item 12 which would be the discussion of the monthly staff enforcement report. First. Thank you vicechair lee, commissioners, welcome. Before you start, if there are any members of the public who want to comment on this item, they can dial in now and enter star 3 to be added to the Public Comment queue and add some point, not now, i want to followup on the last callers comment that if people call a and theres no reason to run up someones phone bill for a sixhour meeting and see why its a problem for someone. Thanks. The report, on the whole, speaks for its september 11th. I provided updates this month in part because weve not had a meeting in several months and in part obviously because extraordinary developmenting comes out of the u. S. Attorney office and the City Attorney office and in part because weve just turned over from one fiscal year to another. Youve heard updates elsewhere about the public corruption investigation. I did he provide a list of specific developments there in case commissioners wish to have a discussion about it. I assume youve had access to the same information that we have and i would note only that if the Ethics Commission were involved in investigating any of the members arising from the Mohammad Nuru scandal or the leave that the charter and credits that would i can pause and invite any questions or discussions about the work of the City Attorneys office, the u. S. Attorneys office or the Controllers Office. I dont see hands raised. The commissioners have been following it as closely as it is possible to do so as a member of the public and because we did have it cited i watched the Government Audit Committee so i dont think we need to revisit the specific items the public corruption on going investigations so i will invite you to move to the specific Ethics Commission work thaw wanted to share with us. Thank you. I mentioned in this months enforcement report and i mentioned earlier in some discussions with commissioner bush that staff have prepared eric willet took the lead on from other agencies and from within the commission staff, unfortunately, the pandemic and the and endless budget cycle have prevented the executive director and i from having a meaningful conversation about what the final state of that proposal might be. Although its a fairly robust proposal the list is 40 long and we have prepared draft regulations that govern penalty so i would put a question to commissioners at this point, i know from prior meetings the intent was that we would bring to the commission that proposal before shopping at interested person meetings but given where we are, ill just poll you now if you might like staff after we have a chance to finalize staff whether we might bring it directly to interested persons before bringing it back to the commission. And im going to ask you quickly, ive got your agenda items describing the fixed penalty concept that you want to answer any questions that the commissioners might have about that . Im actually, for the record, im in favor of engaging with the interested persons and stakeholders groups on a on going basis as you go back and fourth from the commission. I heat to see something fall 30 days behind since we only meet once a month because you are waiting for us to give the thumb up about what might be a good idea. For what its worth, i would say go solicit feedback and precipitation and well be looking forward to seeing what we can do on that in the near future. Anybody else have a contrary view otherwise im going to not ask for a show of hands since we dont do that in the Ethics Commission. Ok, thats good to know. Thank you. So similarly weve been working on developing an online complaint filing system. Tyler field from the eta division has worked very closely with me on that. We have create aid prototype and ive gotten members from the staff and we will implement revisions based on that feedback and well make the beta Testing Available to counterparts in other organizations before we go live with it as a Pilot Project but the goal is to make it easier for the public to engage with the Enforcement Division to file complaints in a more readily available manner and at the same time, to provide immediate guidance to potential complainants about what other agency instead of us is better to handle the allegations that concern them so again, regard blee, give the present circumstances, we dont have that tool ready to present to you but if there are questions about that, i can field any. Any comments about when you do bring it back, i will be interested in terms of how you manage any evidence they might provide electronically and how you are storing that information, which has to be confidential. I mean some of these complaints are to be confidential theyre in the nature of whistleblower complaints. We can delve into that after youre done with your development and beta testing but its a good idea, its just youu are going to have to be really careful about your protocols. Thank you. Separately, just quickly, some highlights from the fiscal year review. We provided this month statistics of various kinds and compared them to the same statistics that we provided at this time a year ago. And from two years ago, in brief, we in the last year received about the same number of complaints that we did in the prior year and we increase half and a number of complaints that we handled through this consultation and no further action protocol and where we take informal complaints and jurisdiction and we dont move them to the docket we just give guidance and feedback to those complainants and we also resolved this year more than twice as many open investigations as we did last year and three times as many as we did the year before. We resolved investigations or dismissed complaints at the number of about 100 which is roughly 25 greater than the number of complaints that we received this year so in terms of making headway against a backlog, we like to think were making progress there and lastly to note we closed more than 25 investigations this year through the exercise of discretion. Based on the guidance that the commission blessed that the meeting that we had in august where we discussed the kinds of factors that staff might consider in how to implement press ka to b discretion. Any questions about those numbers . They tell them about the number of work deployment that the Ethics Commission has made [please stand by] i do understand because of the skillset that you and your staff have as investigators, youre likely much desired by the Emergency Operation center and your ability to manoeuvr in the world and so we do appreciate it and you, in particular, i understand that you volunteered to be one of those individuals who handled food service for some of the disadvantaged folks who have had to be put up in hotels in San Francisco and i think thats the kind of Frontline Service that nobody anticipated when they signed on to be a City Employee, but we really respect and appreciate your work there and well cut you slack for another three days or so. Then after that, we wish you god speed in continuing to do all of this good work here because i know you have been working really hard to try to break the backlog and come up with approaches to more efficient and streamlined and given all of the work that is going on on the corruption investigations and with the upcoming election, i know were going to be busy. And so, keep up the good work and come back to these issues at some future time. Commissioner chu, you have your hand up and ill recognise you if you want to unmute your mic. Thank you, chair ambrose, and i wanted to echo the chairs comment takes tcommendation to s emergency situation. I had two other comments. One was to say, congratulations on the 27 cases, over seven last year and thats great. We can clear up the docket and allocate the resources towards the enforcement agenda and then, secondly, this is in the referrals to delinquent revenues. Could you just clarify for us, the lynette suite update . It says here that the Legal Department filed a notice of settlement of the entire case with the superior court. Anyways the one update that is current because it came not from our usual contact of the bureau but from the tax attorney who is handling that matter on our behalf and what we have done is, we have submitted to the court a settlement proposal to miss sweet agreed a number of months ago and to which the executive director since agreed and so, you know, maybe chair ambrose can speak to the process or andrew chen or janica. But i believe the process of submitting that notice of settlement of the whole case is to notify the court about the intent of the parties to set the matter. I believe the court likely has to provide its approval for that proposed settlement and once we obtain that approval, then the city could move forward in an attempt to enforce the settlement. And how much was the settlement for . So i remember the settlement was roughly 20,000, but the value was the amount of Public Finance expenditures that had not been properly accounted for. And so the goal, youll remember from prior meetings, was to make sure at the very least, the city would be made whole, even if there were not additional punitive outcomes to that matter. Thats right. Thank you. Yes. Im not going to commissioner bush, your hand is up and i want to give you the floor. Thank you, on that settlement, is there a provision that says that she will not accept or seek a position to city for x number of years . No, i believe it only concerns her fiscal liability to the city. I know that in the case of a passed planning commissioner, there was a provision that he not accept or seek another Commission Appointment for three or four years. Didnand so, it is possible to d Something Like that. Given the circumstances of the fact she had served on a number of city boards and commissions, that might be something, if its not too late, to suggest be included. Ok. Thank you for the feedback. Ill discuss it with the attorney. And i had a couple of quick questions for you. You know, there was a very funny little cartoon out of washington about how a bill becomes a law and you saw how it went through the various places. Well, i thought you might be able to do Something Like that about how a complaint gets resolved. Because complaints come in to the Ethics Commission and then they go to the District Attorney and the City Attorney for a certain period of time and then come back and there are certain kinds of complaints, they go to mta or somebody with uniform in an ad, it goes to their department and theres five or six different types ways of handling this that leave ethics thaw dont really see where they go. You only find out when you file a complaint and then you find out later that it went somewhere else. And so, i would recommend that it would be a great idea to create a roadmap so that people who file complaints can know what may happen to the complaints they file and they would feel much more respected about the whole thing. And so, i was going to suggest filing a complaint an. And then i wanted to just see whether you have created a tickler system so when something goes to the district Attorneys Office, and if you could post the names of city officials who are now disqualified because they failed to timely fail after notified a number of times that they were overdue on filing. Because i think, just saying, that theres x number who are disqualified without saying what commissions theyre on and so forth, and its not helpful to the public. And so i am just making those recommendations to you. Thank you, commissioner. I can address it, if you would like, but i cant promise commissioner bush that we would have anything like the power of School House Rocks to create an animated musical regarding what happened to a complaint. [ laughter ] that having been said, the creation of this online complaint filing system in the longrun will include to revamp the enforcement process and one of the aims would be to describe or to illustrate more clearly for the public what that process looks like and we see models of that at peer jurisdictions and i appreciate that suggestion. It is something that we will move toward doing. As to the tickler, yes, youre right, as a matter of course, the charter requires any complaints that we tend to investigate to the City Attorney and District Attorney so they can take first crack at those. The charter provides they have ten Business Days to respond. Our experience has been that those agencies have been enormously prompt in their response on those referrals. And they take very seriously tht timeline and as a matter of course, they get back to us. But we have on our doctor, on our tracker, information where we note to ourselves any need of followup with the agencies if we have not heard back from them. My experience with that is that they will see will look into it and get back within ten days and they take a year to come back having looked into it. I know there was a resolution passed by the commission that if after 30 or 60 days, they didnt take action, then the commission could itself take action pending what it was that they did. And i dont know if a vote has been lost in the midst of time or not. I think they are two separate issue. One is that the City Attorney and District Attorney must respond in ten days if they wish to investigate. Right. And they always do that as a matter of course. I think the policy youre referring to regards a kind of courtesy hold that the other commission commits itself to in the event that either the City Attorney or District Attorney says yeah, we want this one. And so, basically, we have said, ok, well stand down for a set period of time and like you, i cant remember its not 30 days. Its either 60 or 90, but 60 . No, its not 30 days. Yeah, its 90. But we do have again, we annotate for ourselves when that 90th day will come up and we always check back in with either of those offices who have taken from us, so to speak, a complaint they want to investigate. We have often in the past continue to stand down if we thought we had good reason to believe those offices were actively working the case and that our involvement might impede their ability to handle it successfully. Thatsunderstandable. Ill jump in here, just because we have to hear Public Comment on this item and, so, mr. Moderator, if you can chair ambrose, can i just complete one thought . Which is on the referrals to other city departments, the departments are headed by political appointees, like ethics and theres some question in the minds of people, like, ok, you send it over to mta, but we know mta is in the pocket of so and so. And so therefore, they have some concern about how that happens. I will come back to you, because we have a 30 to 60second delay for requesting Public Comment, im trying to put the requests out there and then let the speaker finish up the thought. But i hear that. It is there is a difference if they get referred out. Im not prized to hear you keep your own internal particular tim and to that end, that may well be some level, something that you can reassure the commissioners about. I mean those matters are confidential at that point, so we cant just publish a list of every whistleblower complaint anwho stands in the queue and im glad to hear youre keeping track of it. Mr. Ro rodmoderator are there ac speakers in the queue for item 12. There are currently no callers in line for item 12. Then, if you think weve had an adequate amount of time passed between. Public comment is closed and this is not an action item but thank you very much, mr. Pearson. Ill all item number 13 and ill read the moderators statement, if there are any member of the public who anticipate offering Public Comment for this item, you can dial in now and enter star 3 to be added to the Public Comment queue and then, i am going to take the prerogative of going first so that i dont forget the item that i had in mind for future meetings and its something you mentioned also, commissioner bush, and that is our need for an annual report and in reviewing the bylaws and anticipation of taking over the chair, there is a specific provision ha calls for the chair of the commission and the executive director to report to the commission on the activities and accomplishments of the commission during the past fiscal year, as well as the anticipated needs Going Forward. It had been my thought i would scramble and get it on the calendar for july and thus and meet that deadline within ten days of the end of the fiscal year and, unfortunately, i wont be able to bring something to you for your consideration until the august 14th meeting. But it ties in very well with the conversation that weve had here today about the budget, about our priorities and our desires, you know, going forwa forward. In terms of getting an annual report, my recollection is that the board of supervisors has put the kibosh on any of that sort of publication, for financial reason exposreasons and it was o much of a pr industry to put out glossy brochures and we will do an annual report. It will be on eight and half by 11 or a digitally, you know, with word type, et cetera. And hopefully, that is what your expectation was in terms of that annual report. You think that would be great. Anything you can do electronically is helpful, too. Right, exactly. And we can share it there. So commissioner chu. Im sorry. I had my hand up. On that note, im done. That was the open item putting on the calendar tor august, aside from revisiting the budget matters and if any of the commissioners want to identify any specific subjects for august or in general, matters that they want the commission to work into the agenda in the months ahead, please raise your hand. Commissioner li . You have to unmute your m irritation c, please. Mic, please. Thank you, madam chair. I would like to have the staff report on the internet, political ad review that we were planning to do, but, of course, it was not a priority, but given the covid19 situation and the increasing reliance on Internet Political activity, it would be great if we can have a discussion either for the august, september or october meeting, just to know where we are in terms of online, political ads and everything else. Im going to ask the executive director to just we wont get into a substantive discussion, but if you could let us know from a timing point of view if you think that it would be possible to get a discussion item on that matter for august or september. Are you looking for feedback right now . If you will look into it, then. You dont have to give us feedback right now, but i thought if you already i wasnt sure. I was reading your face if you wanted to Say Something. [ laughter ] otherwise, we hear it and shell work on it and do we have any other comments youre raising your hand, commissioner bush . I would like to tag along with what commissioner li just raised. I know the fppc is taking a look at social media and how advertisements take place there. And i also think that we might put on the calendar for a future meeting a discussion of how much things have changed because i noticed when mr. Mueller issued his report about russia and donald trump, he said that a substantial amount of information was not available to them because it was conveyed the communications back and forth were on a system called snapchat and as soon as you read it, it disappeared. Not now the only way i can see around that is to have some recipients if yorequirements tha file, it is kept for a certain period of time but you cannot have a fail that immediately disappears. There are other forms of communication that takes place now where you can follow someone or put a geofence around a facility and that will capture everyones email who goes into that building and then you can follow them and continue to prop ag artoparticular ropagandize t. This is used across the country by all kinds of groups. Im not sure how that plays out, other than its clear a new method to influence the public in the direction on a Public Policy matter that may be before our city, but i would like to just broaden what commissioner li has suggested and ask that we consult with the fppc on what theyre doing with this and any other interested parties and take a look at it down the road. Thank you. I agree. It is literally a brave new world in that realm and there are people working in those problems and to the extent that we can invite them to help us understand, you know, the things theyre doing, that would be advantageous. And so, also, executive director, just keep that in mind and im sure these are also things that keep you awake late at night, scrolling through the news about the latest and greatest way to avoid ethics regulation. And you know, with that, especially given the late hour, i am going to jump over to our moderator and ask him to look and see if we have any Public Comment waiting, anyone who managed to hang in there for the full seven hours of this meeting and has one more thing that they want to share with us, please invite them to speak. I do not see any callers lined up for comment. Commissioners, well certainly have many more meetings in this still Going Forward and any suggestions that you have about how to make this better for us or if you hear from members of the public, things they would prefer, please bring them forward because this is clearly a workinprogress. But with that, i do want to thank you all for your time, for your patience and commitment to ethics and ill close Public Comment on item number 13 and ill flip the page and make sure that i am right and that the next item is just an additional opportunity for Public Comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda pursuant to the Ethics Commission bylaws, article 7, section 2. So this is an opportunity for anyone who is out there that wanted to comment, thoughte nota specific agenda item but anything else that wasnt on the calendar or that is on the calendar. And then, mr. Moderator, if you could please review the queue and see if anyone is waiting and then for the commissions information, as soon as were done with that, i will be asking for a motion to ajourn for agenda item 15. But first, are there any speakers in the queue on Public Comment on matters not on the agenda before the commission . Madam chair, i do not see any callers lined up for the Public Comment section. Ok, ill close Public Comment on item 14 and ill call item 15, which is adjournment and commissioners, do i have a motion to ajourn this meeting . I make that motion. [ laughter ] ok. I think that was a unanimous first motion. Do i have a noons second for that motion . Second. Very good. If you would not mind calling the role on adjournment. Were calling the role on every item because of the visual hearing aspect of it and if you could proceed with that. role call . Five the votes in the affirmative and ajourning this session. The meeting is, according to my computer at 4 03 p. M. , thank you very much all for your time. We have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. You can see us on the website we broke ground in december of last year. We broke ground the day after sandy hook connecticut and had a moment of silence here. Its really great to see the silence that we experienced then and weve experienced over the years in this playground is now filled with these voices. 321, okay. [ applause ] the park was kind of bleak. It was scary and over grown. We started to help maclaren park when we found there wasnt any money in the bond for this park maclaren. We spent time for funding. It was expensive to raise money for this and there were a lot of delays. A lot of it was just the mural, the sprinklers and we didnt have any grass. It was that bad. We worked on sprinkler heads and grass and we fixed everything. We worked hard collecting everything. We had about 400 group members. Every a little bit helped and now the park is busy all week. There is people with kids using the park and using strollers and now its safer by utilizing it. Maclaren park being the largest second park one of the best kept secrets. Whats exciting about this activation in particular is that its the first of many. Its also representation of our city coming together but not only on the bureaucratic side of things. But also our neighbors, neighbors helped this happen. We are thrilled that today we are seeing the fruition of all that work in this citys open space. When we got involved with this park there was a broken swing set and half of for me, one thing i really like to point out to other groups is that when you are competing for funding in a hole on the ground, you need to articulate what you need for your park. I always point as this sight as a model for other communities. I hope we continue to work on the other empty pits that are here. There are still a lot of areas that need help at maclaren park. We hope grants and money will be available to continue to improve this park to make it shine. Its a really hidden jewel. A lot of this Commission Meeting iso provisions of the brown act and recent executive orders to facilitate tele conferences. Ordinarily the brown act has strict rules foretell a conferencing. The governors order has suspended those rules sm the department has met all of the applicable notice