to hide things and i said i'm not making it seem but i'm saying you do try to hide things you hide what you don't want to be seen. occ is nothing but a cover a fig leaf for police misconduct. they investigate cases and the people who filed the complaint have absolutely no rights to see anything regarding the complaint all they get is a letter saying charges not sustained. an faitdecomple and so as far as a citizen is concerned, they can lie through their teeth and the citizen would never know it and i think honestly many of these things where you go into private sessions and have these private discussions are really done for the purpose of minimizing the damage or potential damage to the city and protecting officers from their own misconduct. >> any further public comment on this issue? if there are none public comment is now closed. >> item 6 with regard to item 7 a and b san francisco administrative code section. >> i have a motion? >> moved. >> thank you very >> ghj ladies and gentlemen, i'll call the order of the special meeting of the san francisco ethics commission which is the notice of today and the subject matter of which is limited to a discussion of the recommendations of the grand jury report and the ethics commission responses to those recommendations. apologize for the late start it was your or else that commissioner hur would be here i'll call the roll. sdmurgz and commissioner keane. i will call the first item and only item on the agenda. it is discussion and possible action regarding possible commission responded to accident 2013 e 2014-2015 civil grand jury report the ethics commission practiced and pretense. the commissions response to the civil grand jury finding and recommendations is due by august 26, 2014. i will call for public comment >> commissioners ray heart san francisco open government we had the sleeping watchdog nothing has changed i don't see any reason to see an attempt to change anything in the status quo. very frankly, i think all of you are appointed by the people to protect and them at the cover their asss on multiple occasions i've come before the commissions and made recommendations in this civil grand jury report the civil grand jury spent energy police vehicle relations to thank them and tell them to go to hell the people you didn't have enough errors i guess the question are you using the resources you have to good focus the civil grand jury last time if seem to knowing think so but a san diego for the strange reason the only reason to exist is for your xoinsz to provide jobs and i'm not sure how much the director makes one hundred and 60 or one hundred 80 thousand care to share with us basically what they do is rearrange the deck chairs on the intent tank and i've asked them repeating give me an example of something you've done in the last 5 years to make this an ethnical situation not because of the sunshine ordinances you can't respond or giving us examples of anything you've done to make pa this civic a group of the citizens don't care the librarian to get him to be found in violation of purging himself accepting he thousands of dollars a year called from the group of friends public library there was a statute of limitations and at the same time he was ignoring his dude duty to keep an eye on the money they spent 2013-2014 raised in the name of the library and the commission doesn't know where the money went they paid him off to look the other way and fined him 2 hundred there's a year and fined him $2,000 a year i'd like that, too >> i'm bob. i have what may be the dubious distinction of being a member of the sunshine task force and the commission. i want to respond to one of the representations that talked the possible commission having secretary. i'm going to delve into history none of you were around then in the late 1990s when i was a chair of the sunshine systematically we went to the commission to ask to share and secretary there was no budget for the sunshine task budget clerk you squeezed for unopportunity mandated time you folks are supposed to handle referrals it makes sense to have the records for both agencies you should consider that rather than saying there's noted enough need for a one-time secretary. i'm going to go beyond to the fact there's references to you folks didn't have enough staff and reservoirs. that's something we tried for when i was the chair and before that when i was vice chair. so at some point again be creative if, if you don't have the staff or resources just say no to a sintsdz strike. we're not going to do a sloppy job or let things pile up we're not going to run into the possibility a statute of limitations may apply that was what happened before they were pending for so long. just say no. and if someone complaints and says we're going to charge you make it a press event how each mayor going back for decades has told her the ethics commission by holding hostage the budget. don't just accept poverty of resources. fight back. thank you. >> good morning. i'm the foreperson of the 2013-2014 civil grand jury. i do want to thank you for a having a special meeting to talk about the grand jury report we put a lot of time into the report i deeply appreciate you've set this aside can i ask do you want to hear from the grand jury separately or am i riektdz to the 3 minutes how do you want to handle the subcontractor with the grand jury members >> i'd be expose to let you as the spokesperson for the grand jury is that what you're asking you want more 3 minutes. >> i can do mine in 3 minutes but i think rob who is the main writer probably going could go longer 3 minutes it depends upon how i want to do that. >> i'd be prepared to let him have more time. >> i'll justify my prospective on the report since i was the foreperson of the whole jury and deeply involved in the aspects. we began to look at our charge is to be the citizens watch dubbing dog of local government we looked at the ethnic and got a complaint and figured out what exactly was going on the thing we found that was probably the most interesting was that a accountability of ethnicities and the responsibility for holding accident picking up public certainty accountable no one has clear ultimate responsibility the ethics commission has some responsibility for holding public certainty accountable and the city attorney and sunshine task force has responsibility so it's dispersed you ail understand when it is dispersed and no one is accountable so much each person can do so part of why we're emphasizing the number of the claims to make sure that everybody understands their accountability and they coordinated with each other to make sure. we also found with the dispersion of the responsibility there was the culture within the government of san francisco that basically allowed ethnicities to be a second priority not the top priority they were going to do whatever they were going to do anyone to not be held accountable. so certainly the other the trantsz with ethnics is important for you especially to keep in mind but this is what the citizens asked for you know the citizens of san francisco have after the years arrested to proposals saying neglectedal on behalf of we want it and that's what we're after so as we look at the past and accident future and what's the future going to be with all the courts decisions and all the public dollars that are being floated into the private dollars that are being bloated into the public arena you all have a responsibility to look and examine the laws to see what's going on and what's effective and not effective you have to anticipate what should be going forward in order to keep track and have transparency in the private dollars coming into the public arena. one of the things that we ail do as grand jury we bring our past references to the work we're doing. and my experience i brought a especially i worked for the public utilities commission and the energy commission i've had experience that makes a huge difference in public policy as the commission circumstantial evidence and deals with the policy issues that are out there against to define policy and it can make a difference we're made recommendations about that you begin to see users as a policymaking body not just an implementation body you begin to meet as committees to keep track of the bigger issues that are happening, the implementation questions that are out there we talked about a hearing officer for the sunshine at the desk to be historic record being kept so again, a level of professionalism could come forward a record is being kept and they could build off the history. i'm going to allow if you will talk about the report rob b will be happy to answer your questions. thanks for your time >> can i suggest we invite the gentleman forward first. >> i was going to make that same suggestion if we've got public comment that is not specifically directed towards the grand jury are participants let's hear that and we'll get into the detail it maybe some interchange between the commissioners and speakers. >> good morning. members of the ethics commission. i want to make 3 points about the report. first my name is clinton cob. i am, of course, a resident of the city and county of san francisco and a participant of local government for 56 years. and counting. i serve for 2 and a half years as the grand jury presiding judge of the san mateo county civil grand juries 11, 12, 2013 years ago i brought a lot of grand jury reports the first point this is probably as well written the court: well, analyzed as my grand jury committee report and grand jury report as i've ever seen if you haven't read it, it's understandable reading don't be deferred by the length. secondly, i oppose the creation of this commission has history records because there was a day when the city attorney and the district attorney's offices between them policed the ethnical of local pub officials in san francisco. it's not necessary it's an unnecessary commission with a budget over $2 million which could be conserved or transferred to the zake or district attorney's office. the district attorney has speeding called the integrity session that announced two-bit cases during the last fiscal ar 2013-2014 but that's the repository of enforcement of laws. secondly, or thirdly, and lastly the essential recommendation of this report is get out of business. transferred to the fair policy fair practices of the state of california the responsibilities of this ethics commission i urge you to act if ways to implement that recommendation. >> thank you. >> good morning. i'm tom. i want to compliment the grand jury for the report it's an excellent report. it seems like as the city is all pretense and no practice i strongly urge you to follow the recommendations of the grand jury report. i briefly looked your draft response it's a total ignoring of the recommendations of the grand jury. i stron ask you to adapt most of the recommendation by the grand jury. thank you >> any other public comment before we get to the gentleman from the grand jury? >> good morning. >> good morning. >> i'm robert i was the primer author of this report yeah. i was the deputy foreperson of the grand jury as well. it's a lengthy report i'm going to try to sum up with a lot of the recommendations and finding of the report. in analyzing the situation with the ethics commission i think some of the points have been made by the public speakers and we see this kind of responsibility for enforcement and feel the by itself enforcement tools lies with other entities we feel the ethics commission both the staff level and at the commission level should be more engaged and encouraging transparency in government we have a large operation endeared towards transparency now we know of some possible problem areas but this is the the thrust of what you should be doing. with the commission itself we want to emphasize the importance of forward-looking on policy. we emphasis a report that's not been prepared in recent years possible never analyzing the shortcomings of the various laws administered we think a wonderful vehicle into both to educate the public and user in the overall environment with campaign finance and government ethnics. we've addressed the finding and recommendations both to the commission and to the executive director some just to the commission and others to the executive director many to both because we see different rolls for the commission and for the executive director. we see the commission as a policy body sometimes, it can be legislative you proposes changes in the laws sometimes your judicial in a sense but you're more you have the boarder policy roll for the staff is administering the laws and dealing with things on a day to day basis. we said expect the views to be a little bit different when you take a broad view versed day to day problems. in terms of some of our proposals we aim to get the ma usher away and make our life easier in some ways in terms of letting euphoric on those broader policy issues. so we, you know, recommend things like having an independent hearing officer on the sunshine complaints so you get a clear record and act more directly and to have a commission secretary, to interface between you and the public to organize your agenda, to potentially get our own attorneys separate from the city attorney. and to potentially work through committees a little bit more so some members can focus on some topics more than others and when the full commission is meeting you can get a narrative on policy issues. we also recommend moving major enforcement acts to the ftc we think its important to get away from potential influence by people in the city. it's just didn't makes sense to have the people accepting your budget in one form or another being the people you're trying to enforce the laws against. that's the general thrust i can speak to independent items this is what with your trying to accomplish >> any commissioners have any questions gentlemen? >> mr. chair was we later on go through our discussion of local response to the grand jury whether at the time, we, call the gentleman and ask him about various things i have a number of things i could use his help on rather than - bombard him with a bunch of questions. >> i think that's a good suggestion what i will say as we go through the draft responses one at that time, time i think probably under the rules i have to ask for public comment each time i want to but i want to hopefully limit the public comment to somebody who is specifically wanting to address that particular recommendation rather than some general public comment about how ineffective this commission is and we're just a bunch of hired hands by folks in san francisco but limiting that to the discussion and i would so i will encourage the members the two members of the grand jury that are here they'll hopefully respond if you've got some if the commissioners have some questions they want to ask. >> i'd be happy to answer further questions. >> thank you. commissioner hayon >> i'd like to echo what has been said it's a very, very well written and understandable document i really appreciate the thoughtfulness and time and effort. i think you took our job seriously we need to pay attention to our recommendations. we may not agree with all of that with every one but all of them need to be discussed and looked at it. so i appreciate your efforts thank you very much >> thank you, commissioner. >> mr. chair. >> any other public comment? commissioner keane >> yeah. i wanted to echo what commissioner hayon said as well in regards to the report itself. i think the report is an excellent documents shows a lot of work work and the senator said it's highly readingable and very much a set of instructions that many of which we should follow in regards to the civil grand juries roll during the course of any careera