Comment period can also be provided via phone call by. Calling 14156550001. Again, the phone number. Is 14156550001 access code is. 2660 399 a1441176. Again, access. Code 26639141176 followed by the pound sign. Then press pound again to join as an attendee when your item of interest comes up, press star three. To raise your hand to be added to the Public Comment line. Public comment is also available via the webex client application. Use the webex link on the agenda to connect and press the raised hand button to be added to the Public Comment line. For detailed instructions on how to interact with the telephone system. Our webex client please refer to the Public Comment section of the agenda document for this meeting. Public comment may also be submitted in writing and will be shared with the commission after this meeting has concluded and will be included as part of the official meeting file written comments should be sent to Ethics Commission at sf gov. Org. Members of the public who attend commission meetings, including remote attendance, are also expected to behave responsibly and respectfully during Public Comment. Please address your comments to the commission as a whole and not to individual members persons who engage in namecalling shouting into eruptions or other distracting behavior may be excluded from participation in the following behaviors or activities are strictly prohibited during remote participation. Applause or vocal expression of support or opposition signs regardless of content or message, profanity , threats of physical aggression. The prohibition of on signs does not apply to does not apply to clothing, which includes signage pinned to clothing messages displayed on clothing, pins, hats, or buttons. This provision supplements this provision supplements, rules and policies adopted by city hall. The Sheriffs Office or the board of supervisors is related to decorum prohibited conduct or activities. Noise etcetera and is not meant to be exhaustive. Thank you, madam chair. I have called an order agenda item number one. Roll call, please. Commissioners, please verbally indicate your presence by saying i a after your name is called i commissioner flores. I commissioner live chair lee. Commissioner salahi. I madam chair, with three members present and accounted for. You have a quorum and commissioners is excused and you may now i continue with this general Public Comment on items on todays agenda. I was to members. All right, sir, please stand by. Your three minutes begins now. Yes good morning. Its second time. I think i show up in front of you. Okay. Today its going to be a you all this meeting on a bastille day. So its interesting since im french, but its just one of these other San Francisco incidents of why im here to deliver this message to you. Here. I talked to the board of supervisors a few times now since february and late february, i stated something which is, okay, hold on, be Pay Attention basically have been ordered. Its beyond my control by the skies to change the course of humanity with the president here in San Francisco , usa, california. So now its a process. I explain to you how it works. Im going to need to talk to the camera here because it concerns everybody. The reasons for being of everything is happiness. So all universities, this is the rules of existence. Its happiness. The only way you can achieve your reason for being, which is happiness, is to focus on an emotional, eternal aspiration that we humans define as beauty. Its an aspiration. If you dont do that, you lose your reason for being, which is happiness. Thats it. Its game over. Your out of existence. Because the rules are impeccable. So we must understand because its so easy to understand, isnt it . Its very easy to understand. So ethics fits in this concept of achieving your reason for being. But we must focus on beauty. Okay. One thing very absolutely important is technology. Technology as it is today, cannot help us to do that, because Technology Work on a mechanical system that clashes systematically with the emotional aspiration which is aiming at beauty. It cannot work. So Technology Today has attained a level of convenience that works against us. So its specific with ai, all these things. Your smartphone works against your happiness. Be aware. Okay. Last thing. There is nothing you can do against me. Its not possible. The only thing you can do against me is to be extremely unhappy. Im sorry, guys. I need to fulfill my mission. I have no choice. Okay i have an excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else. In the queue . Madam chair, we have one caller in the queue. Please stand by. Welcome caller. Your three minutes begins now. Thank you, madam chair. I just wanted to say that prior to the previous speaker, i had difficulty hearing you and i did not hear the queue to press star three to get in the queue for this Public Comment. However, your your most recent pronouncement i could hear loudly and clearly. So i hope the problem is solved. My name is winship hillyer and i have submitted three complaints in the last two months against brian or sorry, mr. Colfax, the director of health. And one of them i had i sent an email after i didnt receive a number for the complaint. I sent the email three weeks after i filed the complaint on may 12th and i got an email back from jeff zumwalt saying that the number of sign was 23, six and five. However, i also filed a complaint on june 15th over a month ago and three weeks after i filed that, i sent another email trying to get the number for it. And i have not gotten any response to that email. Sent an email to sf ethics and so id like to know what the number is for that complaint. And with respect to 23 to 605, the one i filed on may 12th, id like to know whether you have jurisdiction. Its been over two months now, and id like to know. And the most recent complaint was just filed this week. It would be nice if i could get a number for that one, two. Back to you, madam chair. Okay. Thank you. And i think the staff a staff member, will be reaching out to you for a follow up later on today. Madam chair, theres no further callers in the queue. Okay Public Comment for item number two is closed. Lets go to consent calendar agenda item is of the Ethics Commissions june 9th, 2023. Regular meeting. Agenda number four acting executive directors report. Number five proposed amendments to the statement of incompatible activity for the public works department, Public Works Commission and senate and streets commission and item number six proposed stipulation , decision and order in the matter of granite morton. Do i have a motion to approve this . Okay, ill move to approve. Second. Okay motion is moved and seconded. I just want to add a comment to the acting executive directors report. It is really a nice report on the budget being restored and i want to thank the acting director and their team for the hard work that you have done to make sure that we have the budget restored for the this year and next year. This really reflects on the important work that the Commission Staff has done and will continue to do. So thank you very much. Lets open up for Public Comment. I would just like to second that. Its very its very helpful to have this breakdown in summary and to just be consistently kind of apprized of the state of things. Id also like to add that it would be helpful if we could also receive updates or kind of summaries of how the legislation that supervisor suffi has introduced is going just, i think its very relevant, especially given whats on the agenda today. So if we could have a summary at the next meeting or within that time, that would be really helpful for us. Thank you. Okay. Lets go to a Public Comment. I see no one in the room. Lets go to the q place. Madam chair, we have no callers in the queue. Okay Public Comment is closed for consent calendar. Lets take a vote. Please stand by on the motion to adopt the consent calendar. Commissioner flores fang. I chair lee high commissioner salahi. I madam chair, with three votes in the affirmative and zero votes opposed. Its approved unanimously. Okay, lets go to regular calendar agenda item number seven, which is the request for waiver of pows, employment restrictions for joanne lee. Before we begin, i want to make a full disclosure. While i am not familiar with this Nonprofit Organization, i have been friends with the interim executive director for many years. And i have also have a Long Community working relationship with the organization. As vice chair, we worked on numerous Civil Rights Advocacy issues for many years, and he and i also served on the Police Commission for a year. So that is my full disclosure. Now let us go to our staff member, mr. Kenny, to give us an overview of this matter. Thank you. Chair lee. Id like to briefly provide some background and introduce the issue regarding joanne lees waiver request. Joanne lee is currently the Deputy Director of programs with the Arts Commission position that shes held since 2019. Ms. Lee has received an employment offer from the chinatown media arts collaborative or cmac, where she would be the executive director of new edge of the square project. Lee was made aware of this position in december of last year, applied in january, and participated in several interviews in february and april before being offered the position in april. Lee is currently seeking a waiver from the commission to allow her to accept this position of the cmac. A waiver is necessary because ms. Lee personally and substantially participated in the award of two grants to cmac as a city official. The storm relief grant and the nysc grant, both of which are detailed in the staff memo. The city has a rule in subsection 3. 23 for a three of the campaign and governmental conduct code, which prohibits officers and employees from being employed by or otherwise receiving compensation from any person or entity thats entered into a contract with the city in the preceding 12 months where the officer or employee was personally and substantially involved in the award of that contract. In both the storm relief grant and the grant lee was personally and substantially involved in awarding the grants and those grants have been or will soon be entered into within the last 12 months, the commission has the authority to waive this prohibition for ms. Lee only if the commission determines that imposing a restriction would cause extreme hardship formally. Now neither the code nor Commission Regulations define extreme hardship, so the commission has flexibility in determining what is an extreme hardship and when it applies. However, the Ethics Commission regulations do specify things the commission may consider when determining if imposing this rule would constitute extreme hardship. These factors are the vocation of the individual, the range of employers, the individual could work for the steps. The individual has taken to find new employment and any other factors. The commission deems relevant. As described in the staff memo. The staff recommendation is not is do not grant the waiver to ms. Lee. This is based on a fairly narrow view of extreme hardship that is focused on the factors described in Commission Regulations. Considering that ms. Lee is currently employed by the city and has not engaged in a lengthy or exhaustive search for employment, it does not appear that there is an imminent Financial Hardship associated with her not being able to accept this position with cmac. She would also appear to have other options for meaningful, rewarding employment through either remaining with the city or pursuing opportunities elsewhere to the larger goals of the campaign and governmental conduct code. Specifically those regarding undue influence or unfair advantage, and promoting the idea that government decision should be and should appear to be made on a fair and impartial basis. Staff largely agrees with lee and many of the people who have submitted Public Comment that the risk in that area is minimal. However, the standard in the code for this rule is not about undue influence or unfair advantage. It is about the existence of extreme hardship and it is up to the commission to determine if not awarding the waiver would cause ms. Lee extreme hardship. Staff would further recommend that if a waiver is granted to ms. Lee that it be narrow and only apply to this position with and not be able to be used for any other potential prohibited employers or positions. Thank you. And im happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Kenny. And lets see if ms. Lee is present and if she wants to address this commission. Welcome thank you. I try to get this going. Good morning and good morning. President lee and commissioners, thank you for consideration of my waiver request to allow me to work for cmac. Im joanne lee, the Deputy Director of programs at the San FranciscoArts Commission, where i started about four years ago. I oversee our various arts programs and serve as a liaison to other city departments on Program Related initiatives. Ive also served on the mayors Economic Recovery Task force, and so much of my focus right now is to align our agencys programs with the mayors priorities for arts to play a key role in the citys economic recovery. So three months ago, when i received an employment offer from cmac, i to be the inaugural executive director of edge on the square, it really is a dream come true for me. Before working for the city ive spent over 25 years working for Nonprofit Organizations here in San Francisco and over half of that time in chinatown, where i developed Affordable Housing and served as a senior manager at a Community Organization. This position with cmac is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. It marries my skills, my experience and passions to lead a project that includes real estate developers, economic revitalization, nonprofit management, arts and culture in the very heart of chinatown. In an emerging Community Organization thats really poised to be an economic catalyst for chinatown and the city. So this this position is the perfect culmination of my career and would be an extreme hardship for me to not be able to pursue it as a chinese American Woman who visited my grandmother in chinatown is a child tutored in chinatown while i was a student at uc berkeley and worked there for 15 years. This is a dream position. After three decades as a Deputy Director and senior manager, this is an opportunity for me to finally lead an organization as the executive director. I could go on about each of the grant issues. Im not sure if thats what youd like me to discuss or if youd like me to stand for questions at this point, im very cognizant of your time. I also have a representative from the Arts Commission here today, the director of Cultural Affairs couldnt be here, but our Communications Director could also make a statement on behalf of my home department. Okay, well, since we already have the documents, maybe if we want to ask detailed questions, we can do that later. And since we have a department represent live here, if she or he wish to make any comments. Good morning, chair lee and Ethics Commissioners. My name is clement. Im the director of communication for the San FranciscoArts Commission, and im here today as acting director of the Arts Commission on behalf of ralph remington, who is out of the office and was not unable, was unable to join us today. And we are here to show support from the Arts Commission in support of joanne lees requests for a waiver. I will be reading a letter of support provided by director remington. So dear chair lee and commissioners, im writing to express my strong support for joanne lees waiver requests to enable her to work with the chinatown media and arts collaborative immediately upon her departure from city employment. Ive had the Great Fortune to work with joanne since i became director of Cultural Affairs at the San FranciscoArt Commission in january of 2021. Joannes vast knowledge and experience in and with San Franciscos community has helped me quickly understand our local arts and cultural sector and how the sfc can best support the sector to ensure that San Francisco remains one of the top arts and cultural cities in the united states. While joanne has only worked for the city and county of San Francisco for under four years, she has steward the sfc during an