Commissioner chan is very in touch with the Veterans Community, and in process of working with two areas of interest in the San Francisco community. The first one is getting free access to the state parks and recreation, and the state level recreation b. M. R. , as well. Jason is currently managing the Veterans Justice Court as a men tar coordinator. Mentor coordinator. I was so impressed with sitting down with both [inaudible] chair ronen thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. My name is linda yee. I hope you dont just consider bill barnickel for the next four years as a commissioner, i hope you appoint him. I cant say how much he did for my 96yearold dad who served in the borna war theater. I helped him through the application process. It was really difficult. We waited, and we waited. Two years later, no word from the Veterans Administration. So i finally contacted Congress WomanJackie Speiers office, and they said my dad did not qualify. So i appealed that decision. Still, no answer. Then, a year later, i accidentally met bill barnickel, and through a mutual friend, i told him his story. He told me to contact and set up a meeting with those kind folks at the San Francisco county Veterans Service office. I dont think it took more than a few months, and he got the award, so it was really a big learning process, but it was something my dad earned because he fought for this country from 1942 to 1945. My dad was finally getting his pension at age 93. Today, hes 96. He would have been here today, but its difficult for him to get around. He fully supports bill for helping him. I dont see how you can have anybody else do the job that bill did for my dad and other elderly veterans just like him. So do the right thing, reappoint bill as a commissioner of Veterans Affairs for San Francisco. Thank you. Good morning. My names carl pang. Im currently employed by the city since 1962, served in the marine corps. I applied for my veterans assistance. The first time i went out to the hospital, the doctors had the nerve to tell me yes, you do have cancer, but youre making too much money because youre still employed. I ran into bill about a year ago, and i told bill my story. Bill says thats ridiculous. So i was able to go out with bill. And i judge a person not by what they say, but what they do. Bill really pushed everything through, and just not quite not quite a month ago, i got 100 disability from the v. A. So i really appreciate everything that mr. Barnickel has done, and theyre all good commissioners. Thank you. City leaders, neighbors, and veterans of San Francisco, thank you for taking the time to support San Francisco and its people. My name is nicholas, and i live in ingleside. Im a combat wounded veteran, decorated with a purple heart, Operation Iraqi freedom 2004. Right now, i volunteer with jason. I met jason at sfsu where he led veteran students to access benefits and service. Hes personally assisted me in accessing my benefits and care. Hes organized and educated veterans at sfsu about the city and federal options for care. Thanks to jason, i will be a homeowner in 60 days through the b. M. R. Program. Jason was promoted to look at sfsu Veterans Office to officially work in a capacity to help veterans get through the education system. For the past year, jason has volunteered without pay at the Veterans Justice Court first as a peer mentor and then as a peer mentor coordinator. He assists the most destitute among our community to Access Health care and housing and apply for their benefits and engaging with the Veterans AdministrationHealth Care System through the Citys Department of health and human services. Jason will be an invaluable asset because of his continuous Selfless Service in the community. He urges veterans from any situation to get on their feet and get to a better place. I think jason chittivong will bring our veterans home. Further, id like to add that bill barnickel [inaudible] clerk speakers time has elapsed. Chair ronen thank you very much. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Good day, supervisors. My name is irwin umbau, and im a managing supervisor of citibank. Id like to support bill barnickel about three years, and i think the three words that can describe him are dedication, motivation, and commitment. My nephew, who recently separated after seven years from the air force, came to me and said im separating into civilian life. Bill took him by the arm and walked him through the process of getting all his benefits. Bill and i study martial arts in the same school. There was a veteran there who separated from the navy, and he walked him through the whole process of getting health care, education, housing, and career development. I participated in a lot of his efforts, and i look forward to participating with him in the future. I have not been with him socially where he has not found a veteran to help. I hope that helps you. Good morning. My name is gordon tan, and im born and raised in San Francisco. Im here in support of hanley chan. Ive known him for many years, and i know his dedication with the commission. Hes always hard working, has a good network of people that he knows, so i think he provides good support for all the veterans out there. Thank you for your time. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. My names vern glen, and normally, i talk about nothing but sports. Im a t. V. Guy. Thank you for the applause. But im here for hanley chan, so im going to step out of the sports land and talk about him. We go back 20 years, and ive never seen him stop. I dont know where he gets his energy from, but you watch him work a room, you watch him fight for you, and it will just be unbelievable. Paul mayamoto went for sheriff. How did that work out . Got sworn in about a month ago, and when he needed help, he called hanley chan, and we saw the end result. Hes the kind of guy that just will not stop and just continue to fight. You need him on your team, you want him on your team, so hey, hanley chan, just remember the name. Chair ronen great voice. Good morning, supervisors. My name is vernon xi. Im a product of San Francisco. I was born and raised in San Francisco, product of the rotc program in high school. Shortly after i graduated high school, i enlisted in the United States marine corps. After i separated, i was very unaware of my benefits, and ive been out for four years, and i have finally started applying for benefits. After i met hanley chan, hes constantly reaching out, making sure im speaking to the right people, getting the kacare i need, so i support hanley chan. Thank you. Good morning. My names bob vicari, Robert Vicari officially. Im here to represent bill barnickel for one main reason. He got me what i deserve. Im a veteran in the korean war. I ran into bill in the sunset, and he had heard i ran into trouble with the v. A. Getting hearing aids. He said you should be getting hearing aids. Youre a combat veteran. He took me down to the city, at 2 vanness. I met a guy named gallagher, and then i went to the v. A. Center, met a lady by the name of liz. I had a couple of interviews, down in texas, got veterans evaluation services, got into the mix, and not only i got my hearing aids, but they treat me very nicely over at the v. A. , and the only thing i can say after everything has been said thus far is that hes your man, and hes my man for sure. Thank you very much. Chair ronen thank you so much. Good morning, supervisors. My name is victor olivari, and im the chairman of the veterans association. I dont envy your job. This is the second year that weve had a ton of overwhelming candidates. I did try to make your job easier to commence a rules committee to review all the applications and then recommended them to the commission. The committee is recommending douglas boullard and Courtney Miller. The only job were responsible is advising the board of supervisors and mayor about policies that might affect veterans. If theres a fifth person that you really like, please let us know, and we will do our best to make sure that person gets in front of the mayors office. The commission right now is made up of 11 men and three women, which i think is something very important to note. We have eight people of color, thats four a. P. I. , one african american, one hispanic, one middle eastern, and one lgbt. What we are missing is gaps in experience. We need subject matter experts, and this is well beyond Public Comment or any support of candidate. We have gaps in workforce development, education, housing, project management, and Employee Resource Group development. So with that in mind, beyond the official recommendations of the board, i wanted to highlight the applications of three other prospective applicants in case you do not wish to fill those other two seats. Those are eric deng, daniel shaffer, and jason chittivong. Thank you for your time, and im available if you have any questions. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is ralph martinson. Im here supporting bill barnickel. I met bill, and he got to know me a little bit, and he said, marine, im going to help you. That was difficult for me. Its sometimes difficult for some of us to reach out for help. I know that after i was discharged, Honorable Discharge in 2006, Operation Iraqi freedom combat tours, immediately went to graduate school, got married, things were looking bright, but i was carrying some things that hadnt been resolved just yet, and bill was there for me. Bill said im going to take care of you, marine, and he dogged me out. I was trying not to go to the best of my ability, and he just stuck with me every step of the way. To this date, besides the ratings and benefits, just the help received, whatever it is, the Mental Health counseling, the supports, financial help, i think it really stopped me from going in a really wrong turn in my life, and i always appreciated him for that. Chair ronen thank you so much. Is there any other member of the public who wishes to speak . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair ronen so you all have left us with an impossible task. It is just incredible to see the breadth of dedication to one another. I want to thank you all for your willingness to serve. All both of my colleagues want to speak. I will just say that i am very in favor of reappointing hanley chan to seat nine and william barnickel to seat three. Clearly, you are going above and beyond your duties in providing support to fellow veterans, and i just want to thank you so much for doing that and explain and support your renomination to the commission. I also believe that women are underrepresented on this body, and so i would like to support Courtney Miller for another seat on the commission, and then, the remaining seat, its very difficult to say, but i wanted to hear from my colleagues before making a decision. So supervisor mar . Supervisor mar thank you chair ronen. I also want to thank all of the very impressive applicants for not just your willingness and serving on the Veterans Affairs commission, but for your service to our country and your dedication and service to San Francisco. As the son of a veteran and somebody who has family who are veterans, its just inspiring to me to see all the different ways youre helping in our city. I yeah, i guess i this is a really hard decision to make, you know, as chair ronen has stated. And i i also support the reappointment of hanley chan and bill barnickel. I have worked very closely with both bill and hanley on Veterans Issues and been really impressed and inspired by all of the direct work that both of you are doing to support individual veterans and families navigating to navigate our challenging Service Systems and bureaucracy. But also, youve done so much to educate me and other city leaders on the needs of our Veterans Community and towards improvement to our system and towards services to veterans. And i i also am supportive of doug boullard as a new appointment to the commission. Doug is somebody that ive gotten to know very well through his work as a Jrotc Program at lowell, but also citywide through the Jrotc Program, so im impressed by doug and his dedication to young people and his mentoring of young people through the jrotc people and what hes done to bridge the work between the veterans and military and the commission. Chair ronen thank you. Supervisor haney . Supervisor haney yes. I also want to thank all the folks that came out and applied. Its amazing to hear about everybodys Extraordinary Service and how you continue to help people in the community, especially veterans in our city. I know for bill and for hanley and for all of the members of the commission, you all go above and beyond, and its just extraordinary how many people youre able to connect with and support and be there for. So i just want to appreciate all of the members of the commission, and everyone who applied, for those who wanted to be on the commission, because we have a limited number of spots, i hope that you continue to be engaged, and i hope that there are ways for the commission to promote and support your leadership in the meantime, and hopefully, youll have a spot on the commission at some point. I also just wanted to give a shout out to hanley whos somebody it seems like most of us know, and just thank him for being everywhere and for educating all of us and elected officials about the needs of veterans in our community. And then, i also wanted to speak to doug boullard. Hes somebody i got to know very well when i was a School Board Member and have always appreciated his role especially working with young people and just the professionalism and the effectiveness with which he does his work for jrotc. Even when there was disagreements with the School District sometimes there are he always was an effective voice for leaders and veterans on the jrotc. Im a guest on this committee, so i would defer to the chair on the final recommendations. Chair ronen okay. So listening to the comments, i will make a motion to move forward with positive recommendation william barnickel to seat three, Courtney Miller to seat six, douglas boullard to seat eight, and hanley chan to seat nine. And if i can take that without objection, that motion passes unanimously. [gavel]. Chair ronen thank you so much. [applause] chair ronen for those of you who didnt get a seat, please reach out to the mayors office, and commissioner hanley can be helpful with that. Thank you so much. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item three. Item three is a hearing considering appointing one member, indefinite term, to the streetlevel dealing task force. Chair ronen thank you so much. Give you a minute if you could please take the conversations outside, we still have business. Id appreciate it so much. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor haney, do you have any opening comments . Supervisor haney sure. So i want to thank the rules committee for making the appointments previously to the street level task force. This task force has actually already started to meet, and unfortunately chair ronen sorry. If theres any further conversations, if you could take those outside, thank you so much. Thank you. Supervisor haney thank you. Unfortunately, one of the members, janet hector, who was previously appointed, had to withdraw. So we have six applicants for this one seat. Some folks are here today with us, and some were not able to make it. Weve read all of the applicants beforehand and have considered any applicants. [inaudible] i got myself back together, and now, i have my own office that i help people Homeless People get acquire housing every day, and im standing here in city hall. And i just think i have a good outlook on how like, give a good information on open like, the task force and ways to help either the people dealing drugs get programs or focusing on the drug aiddicts getting programs. And thinking more of the drug dealers, getting help for them, seeing if theyre willing to use their skills for other purposes, but thats what im here for. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Good morning. Im kenneth kim. Im a licensed clinical psychologist and senior directing programs at glide. I was really exciting about janet joining the task force because of its charge. Shes someone whos incredibly knowledgeable about this information. For myself, i came into this work growing up in approximate Government Housing myself, being exposed to Violent Crimes myself. Most of my experience has been in foster care, so my experience in drugs have been through foster parents, mostly in contra costa county. Impart i am part of the Community Advisory committee, and i think my strength is being a bridge between the Mental Health systems. Ive managed medicare contracts for ten years, and really, the challenges on both sides. With my work in glide, i helped lead the safe injection sites, what they look l